The Supreme Court has affirmed Governor Dauda Lawa of the People Democratic Party (PDP) as the valid winner of the governorship election that held in Zamfara State.

In the same manner, the apex court also affirmed the election of Bassey Otu (Cross-River), Alex Oti (Abia), Abba Yusuf (Kano), Caleb Mutfwang (Plateau), Bala Mohammed (Bauchi), Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos) and Umo Eno (Akwa-Ibom) states. 

The Supreme Court panes that handled the cases set the precedence that issues of pre-election matters are purely and squarely internal affairs of political parties that can be litigated by parties to the party primary before an election.

The court equally set the power to elect on the electorates and no the courts, stressing that for one to discountemanve votes cast for a candidate, the contending party must bring up evidence to prove that his opponent actually got votes he ought not have earned on the election results.

The apex court, in a unanimous decision in respect of Kano State by a five-member panel of Justices, on Friday, vacated the concurrent judgements of the Kano State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal and the Court of Appeal in Abuja, which sacked governor Yusuf and declared Nasiru Gawuna of the All Progressive Congress, APC, as winner of the gubernatorial poll.

In the lead judgement that was delivered by Justice Inyang Okoro, the Supreme Court held that the two lower courts wrongly deducted valid votes that were credited to governor Yusuf by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

It held that the 165,663 votes that were deducted from Yusuf and the NNPP on the premise the ballot papers were not signed, stamped or dated, were valid.

It held that by section 63(1) of the Electoral Act 2022, that ballot papers, which bore the official mark and was duly issued by INEC, were not totally invalid.

Besides, the court held that there was no evidence that governor Yusuf influenced the non signing of the ballot papers.

More so, the court faulted the lower courts for nullifying Yusuf’s election on the premise that he was not a member of the NNPP.

On Plateau, the Court reversed the judgment of the Court of Appeal which in November last year removed Governor Caleb Mutfwang from office on ground of unlawful nomination.

The apex court held that the Court of Appeal made fundermental error in allowing the All Progressives Congress (APC) to poke nose into the conduct of the primary election by the People’s Democratic Party PDP and nullified the election unjustly.

Justice Emmanuel Akomaye Agim who delivered the lead of the unanimous judgment said that the issue of primary election was an internal affairs of political parties and that no other party can dabble into it except members of the same party.

Besides, Justice Agim said that the issue of alleged improper conduct of the ward and local governments election used to sack the Governor was not justiceable.

He said that conduct of the ward and local governments election was an affairs of the State Executive Committee of a political party while the conduct of the primary election for the nomination of a governorship candidate is entirely that of the National Executive Committee of a political party.

Justice Agim held that there was no issue of irregularities in the ways and manners the Governorship primary election that produced the governor was conducted in Plateau and wondered why that of the ward election was used to nullify the gubernatorial poll.

He said that evidence was even well adduced that an order of Plateau State High Court allegedly disobeyed was indeed obeyed by parties involved.

Justice Agim therefore voided and set aside the order of the Court of Appeal that
Nentawe Goshwehe, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) be inaugurated as Plateau State Governor.

For Bauchi State, the apex court affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeal and dismissed the appeal by Sadique Abubakar of the APC for lacking in merit and affirmed the election of Bala Mohammed of the PDP as the Bauchi State governor.

The court also dismissed the appeals of the PDP and Labour Party in the Lagos State poll.

In a unanimous verdict, delivered by Justice Adamu Jauro, the Apex Court held that the Court of Appeal was right in declining jurisdiction in the cases because there was no basis to have done so.

Specifically, the Supreme Court held that the appellants failed to prove their allegations of forgery and non-qualification against Sanwo-Olu and Hamzat thereby making their case to devoid merit.

No cost was awarded against the appellants.

The Supreme Court had on Thursday, dismissed three separate appeals by the APC,  Young Progressives Congress and New Nigerian Peoples Party and their candidates against Akwa Ibom State Governor, Pastor Umo Eno.

The parties had asked the apex court to remove the governor of the state, alleging certificate forgery among others.

The tribunal and Court of Appeal  in Lagos had in November 2023 affirmed the election Eno as the winner of the governorship election held in the state on March 18,2023.

The appellate court in its judgment dismissed three separate appeals filed against the governor’s election.