Guber Election Tribunal: Conflicting opinions after controversial rulings

The results of the Nigerian governorship elections on March 18, 2023, have been decided by numerous State Governorship Election Petition Tribunals.

Kano, Bauchi, Zamfara, Plateau, Benue, Enugu, Lagos, Cross River, and Gombe are a few of the states.

Depending on which side of the divide one is on, different people have responded differently to the judgements so far.

While some have praised the judgements, saying they accurately reflect the law, others have harshly criticised them, calling some of the judgements a blatant miscarriage of justice.

The rulings in the states of Enugu and Kano appear to be the most contentious of those that have so far issued judgements.

Abba Yusuf, the current governor and NNPP candidate, was removed from office as governor of the State on Wednesday, September 20, by the Kano governorship election petition tribunal.

The tribunal ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to revoke the certificate of return given to Yusuf in a decision delivered via zoom.

It confirmed Nasir Gawuna, the APC candidate for governor of Kano State, as the legitimately elected official.

OBASANJO NEWS24 reports that Yusuf, who was proclaimed the winner of March 18 governorship elections got 1, 019, 602 votes to overcome his nearest challenger, Gawuna, who got 890, 705 votes. Gawuna and his party, however, were not happy with the outcome and filed a petition to contest Yusuf’s victory.

During the judgement, the tribunal subtracted 165, 663 votes from Yusuf’s votes on the ground that the ballot papers were not stamped, signed and dated by INEC as the law required.

The 165,663 votes were ruled invalid by the court, and INEC was directed to give a certificate of return to the APC candidate.

The NNPP and Yusuf, according to the tribunal, provided the materials that were used as evidence against them.

“The respondents themselves in my opinion were the ones who helped this court to arrive at the conclusion that this petition is meritorious for the following reasons: The first respondent supplied certified true copies of all the critical electoral documents on the fact of which we found the clear evidence to arrive at the conclusion that the second respondent did not win the March 18 election in Kano State,” the court held.

Citizens in Kano staged violent protests while yelling pro-Yusuf slogans shortly after the verdict was handed down. They argued that they voted for Yusuf and that no court would impose a candidate they never elected on them.

The situation almost got out of hand when the protesters became violent, burning and destroying both public and private property worth millions of Naira. The circumstances caused the state government to rapidly impose a curfew on the entire State so as to arrest the unpleasant trend.

Reacting to the ruling, the NNPP’s National Working Committee, NWC, described it as ludicrous and nothing short of sheer miscarriage of justice.

The party’s acting National Chairman, Abba Kawu Ali, said that the party will appeal the ruling.

He said: “New Nigeria People’s Party received with utter incredulity and disbelief the judgement of the Kano State Election Petition Tribunal on the March 18, 2023, Governorship elections.

“The reported judgement nullified the free, credible and globally acclaimed fair election of our governorship candidate, Abba Kabir Yusuf, and brazenly awarded the election to the APC’s candidate, Nasiru Gawuna.

“The Tribunal arrived at this unjust judgement by unfairly subtracting 165,663 votes from the Governor’s tally in order to enable it to unfairly award the election result to the candidate of the ruling APC. In doing so, the Tribunal manifestly affirms its judgement that the vote tally of the APC candidate was sacrosanct.

“The judgement of the three-man Kano State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal is laughable and nothing but a pure miscarriage of justice.

“The decision of the Tribunal is a slap on the face of constitutionalism and rule of law and is capable of further discouraging the electorate from having confidence in the judiciary.

“The NNPP regrets that this Tribunal has just reenacted the sinister plot of 2019 by reversing popular opinion and awarded election results to candidates who clearly lost the election. The NNPP will file an appeal against this egregious ruling. We appeal to the millions of our supporters in Kano and the rest of the nation to preserve peace and tranquilly.

The party’s national secretary, Dipo Olayoku, added that while he insisted the judgement was dubious and in violation of the Electoral Act, parties could not be held accountable for INEC’s shortcomings.

Sanusi Musa, the APC’s legal representative, refuted claims that the party was frantically trying to seize control of Kano State, pointing out that it was the NNPP leaders and the State administration who had promised difficulties in the state.

The APC would not want to hand up Kano State easily, asserted Wale Shaibu, a tech analyst.

“You know how important Kano State is to the country’s electoral success—I’m talking about the presidential elections—just like Lagos is. Any party wouldn’t want to lose the state, in my opinion. So anticipate them doing anything to retake the state, the speaker added.

Others, on the other hand, think that Yusuf would have survived the APC’s assault if the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s presidential nominee, Atiku Abubakar, had won the election.

Ahmed Tanimu, a lawyer, articulated this viewpoint forcefully when he said: “Kano voted decisively for Yusuf, but the devil that is harming the mandate is because Atiku did not win the presidential election. The panel would not have been able to remove Atiku from office if he had won.

In a related event, responses are also being made to the Enugu Tribunal’s decision, which confirmed the election of Governor Peter Mbah and rejected the petition of the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Chijioke Edeoga.

On March 22, the INEC announced that Mbah, the PDP candidate, had won the state’s governorship election held on March 18 after receiving 160,895 more votes than Edeoga, who received 157,552 votes.

Unhappy with the decision, Edeoga petitioned the tribunal, contesting Mbah’s election victory. One of the arguments made in the petition by the LP candidate was that Mbah’s election ought to be nullified because he reportedly submitted a falsified National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) discharge certificate.

A three-member tribunal presided over by Kudirat Akano dismissed the case on Thursday on the grounds that Edeoga had not provided sufficient evidence to support his claim that Mbah had submitted a falsified certificate to INEC.

The tribunal determined that, in accordance with Sections 177 and 138 of the 1999 Constitution as amended, the NYSC discharge certificate was not one of the prerequisites for a person to be qualified for the office of governor, presuming it was in fact faked.

According to Section 177 of the constitution, a Senior Secondary School Certificate or its equivalent is a minimum academic requirement for election to the office of governor. The court held that Mbah was qualified to run for office even without submitting a NYSC discharge certificate.

The tribunal argued that Mbah’s election could not be revoked due to non-qualification because he did not submit the NYSC certificate to support his eligibility for the position.

According to Justice Akano, Edeoga equally failed to establish that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was not used during the election in the Nkanu East Local Government Area. As a result, the tribunal rejected the LP’s claim that Mbah did not receive a majority of valid votes.

The tribunal did accept, however, that Edoga had established the claim of over voting at a few polling places in Amagu Ugbawka, Nkanu East Local Government Area.

The LP, however, together with its candidate Edeoga, had rejected the tribunal’s decision and vowed to challenge it in court.

Chijioke Edeoga’s spokesman, George Ugwu, said, “We wish to convey that the Labour Party and its candidate, Chijioke Edeoga, acknowledge the judgement as delivered at the tribunal and to state that we are prepared to challenge the outcome of this judgement at the Court of Appeal, and to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Gov. Mbah praised the tribunal’s decision and hailed it as a triumph for democracy and Enugu State, characterising it as a well-reasoned decision.

In addition, he offered a hand of friendship to the opposition candidates and their political organisations, stating that building Enugu State required teamwork.

There is time for everything, according to Mbah. There is still time to work hard and come together. We all offered our services to Ndi Enugu.

“The tribunal also agreed with what the people had to say. If serving others was the driving force, it is now time to put partisanship aside and work together because there is so much to be done.

“Our arms are out wide, and I call upon my brothers, who ran this marathon alongside us, to join us in the arduous process of creating the new Enugu State of our aspirations.

“In a similar way, I implore all of our fans to show generosity in triumph. Politics has ended. On May 29th, when we were formally inaugurated, governance began. Time to come together.

The president of the Middle Belt Forum, Dr. Pogu Bitrus, has lent his support to the decisions made by the governorship election tribunals across the nation. He acknowledged that he was not in a position to comment on the legality or otherwise of some of the judgements because he is not a lawyer, but insisted that any decision based solely on a technicality would be overturned by a higher court.

Because I am not a lawyer, he declared, “I cannot appropriately discuss the matter with the verdict of the tribunal. Furthermore, as I am not a lawyer and cannot comprehend the judges’ actions, I would not wish to comment on the legality or otherwise of the judgement.

“For the time being, all we would want to do is to give them the benefit of the doubt; if, however, they choose to rely on a technicality rather than the law, then it will undoubtedly be overturned at some point by a higher court. Let’s wait, and if the petitioners are still unsatisfied, we should encourage them to seek a higher court. I think justice will prevail eventually, whether it’s in Kano or Enugu.

Maxi Okwu, a lawyer and former national chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), commented on the verdict on the Enugu governorship election. He praised the judges for issuing the judgement in a record time but asserted that they flipped the judgement upside down.

I just got a copy of the Enugu verdict, and I must admire the tribunal for moving so quickly, the man added. They deserve praise for quickly producing the judgement, which is how it ought to be.

But I disagree with their assessment. In my opinion, they flipped the verdict on its head. I haven’t read the entire ruling, but from what I can tell, the Court of Appeal and ultimately the Supreme Court must address a few points.

He claimed that the problem with Mbah’s NYSC certificate had not been adequately resolved.

He criticised the clause that demanded Edeoga, the petitioner, submit the original of the forgery, highlighting the fact that only the issuing agency, in this case the NYSC, is entitled to do so.

“I don’t believe the problem of forgery was well addressed. No one is claiming that NYSC is a prerequisite for running for governor of a state, but the same constitution makes it clear that you will be disqualified if you submit a forged document to INEC as part of your eligibility requirements. The only organisation that can determine whether a document or certificate is forged or not is the issuing organisation.

In light of the fact that the NYSC provided proof and the document was struck, how can anyone reasonably expect the petitioner to provide the genuine NYSC certificate? How do you exclude testimony from a witness who has been subpoenaed to testify in court? Well, I’ll read the entire verdict first, but at first glance, I’m concerned. However, he emphasised, “I think the higher courts will provide justice.

He commented on the Kano Governorship Tribunal’s ruling, claiming that while not having read the ruling, he could detect danger from what he had read in the media.

I have not read the Kano tribunal’s decision, but based on what I have learned from the media, it is another prescription for disaster, he added.

He questioned why APC filed a lawsuit when its candidate conceded loss and wished the victor well.

“The APC candidate admitted defeat; his party filed a lawsuit. That is a really amusing situation, then. The issue is that the individual they presented declined to appear in court and instead congratulated the victor, even though the party is qualified to do so.

“Well, let’s see how it goes, but like I mentioned, most of these locations are still experiencing problems. The Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court remain as the final two processes for the governorship.

Let’s see how it goes, but the picture remains pretty unsettling. We have been getting all kinds of perplexing rulings from concurrent panels here and there. Let’s wait and watch how they get handled at the highest level,” he said.

Yerima Shettima, head of the Arewa Youths Consultative Forum (AYCF), also spoke, pointing out that some of the judgements made so far have accurately reflected the wishes of the populace. Additionally, he praised INEC for holding a credible election while urging further changes and improvements to the electoral legislation to achieve better outcomes in subsequent elections.

“So far, so good. While a few decisions may not withstand an appeal, others have genuinely reflected the true desire of the people. Election fraud occurs in every election.

Because we are still learning, he continued, “we must commend INEC for a good job, while we look forward to further amendments and corrections.”