Supreme Court reserves judgement in Bauchi, Kano governorship appeals

Supreme Court, Thursday, reserved judgements in the separate appeals filed by parties challenging the governorship polls in Bauchi and Kano states during the March 18, 2023 elections.

For the Kano appeal, the Supreme Court reserved judgment on the appeal brought by incumbent state governor, Yusuf Kabir appealing his sacking by the Court of Appeal in Abuja.

Yusuf was sacked by the Kano governorship tribunal after 165,000 unsigned ballot papers were deducted from his votes in the state’s March 18 governorship election.

The APC had challenged the election outcome at the tribunal, alleging electoral malpractice.

Yusuf, however, appealed the tribunal’s decision to the Court of Appeal.

However, the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja dismissed the appeal filed by the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) candidate against the judgment of the tribunal which declared the All Progressive Congress (APC) flagbearer, Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna, as the winner of the state’s governorship poll held on March 18.

A discrepancy between the initial judgment and the certified true copy added another layer of complexity to the matter, prompting Yusuf to approach the Supreme Court seeking to overturn the lower courts’ decisions.

The Court of Appeal acknowledged a clerical error in the CTC of its judgment and promised to make corrections.

But Wole Olanipekun appealed to the Supreme Court, urging the court to set aside the decision of the Appeal Court and tribunal.

On Thursday, Olanipekun asked the five-man apex court panel chaired by Justice Inyang Okoro to determine whether or not, the guidelines of INEC will be a basis for nullifying the election victory of his candidate who won the election by a margin of over 100,000.

Olanipekun argued that this is the first time in the annals of electoral jurisprudence where an election was nullified on the grounds that ballot papers were not signed or stamped at the back.

He said INEC guidelines do not envisage that the courts would nullify an election on the basis of INEC purportedly failing to stamp ballot papers on the back.

The governor’s legal team also maintained that its client’s membership of the NNPP is a pre-election matter and authentic and the appellate court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the matter

“The judgment of the lower courts is very unfair to the appellant and we urge your lordships to overturn it,” Olanipekun said.

“I have one question for you. At both courts, was the issue of the source of ballot papers determined or raised at all?,” Okoro asked.

“Nobody raised the legality or illegality of the ballots. They tendered the ballot from the bar. Nobody spoke to it,” Olanipekun replied.

“What I want to find out is if the ballots were illegal,” Okoro asked again.

“They were not illegal,” Olanipekun replied, saying the ballot papers were issued by INEC officials.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) counsel, Chief Akin Olujimi, maintained that the Electoral Act mandates INEC presiding officers to sign the back of ballot papers after the conclusion of the election.

The apex court then asked Olujimi what the findings of the tribunal on the ballots were.

Olujinmi said the findings of the tribunal were simply that the ballot papers were not signed at the back, and not dated.

On the issue of party membership, Olujimi argued that the NNPP membership register did not show the name of Abba Yusuf on it.

However, the counsel for INEC, A.B Mahmoud SAN supported the arguments of Governor Yusuf’s lawyer, saying the decisions of the lower courts were flawed.

Mahmoud said the testimony of a subpoenaed witness (PW32) which the tribunal relied on in sacking Governor Yusuf were not frontloaded along with the petition at the tribunal, contrary to the Electoral Act.

“Those ballot papers, do they belong to you? Yes, they were our ballot papers issued by INEC,” Mahmoud replied, saying it was not the duty of voters to check if ballot papers were signed or not but that of the party agents.

He said INEC’s contention is that the tribunal went far beyond its powers in vetting each of the ballot papers in their chambers and not in open court.

According to Mahmoud, membership of the party is an internal affair of the political party and Yusuf’s name was forwarded to INEC prior to the election while his party membership card was tendered in evidence at the tribunal.

Counsel for the NNPP, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo , said ballot papers were actually cast at the polling units but the APC legal team did not specify the polling units affected at the Tribunal in line with rules of court.

Justice Okoro then asked who should be blamed if ballot papers issued by INEC are not stamped by its officials.

“Who should suffer? Is it the guy that voted, INEC or the person who voted for?” Okoro asked.

Responding, Awomolo said not signing ballot papers ought not to affect the validity of an election.

“My submission is that the election is the decision of the people,” Awomolo said, insisting that the tribunal was wrong to recount the ballots in its chambers.

The NNPP counsel added that not a single witness told the tribunal that ballot papers were not stamped.

He urged the apex court to restore the 165,165 cancelled votes of Abba Yusuf and affirm his election.

Again, Olujimi rose up and said the tribunal cross-checked the disputed ballot papers based on evidence argued upon in open court.

After hearing parties, the apex court reserved its judgment on the governor’s appeal.

Meanwhile, for the Bauchi dispute, the apex court, also Thursday, reserved judgment in the appeal challenging the verdict of the Court of Appeal which affirmed the election of Governor Bala Mohammed of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the March 18 Governorship elections.

The Apex Court reserved the date after all counsels adopted their final addresses.

Justice Inyang Okoro informed the counsels that the date for the judgment would be communicated to them at the appropriate time.

The Appeal Court in Abuja had on November 17 affirmed Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed of the People’s Democratic Party PDP as the elected Governor of the State.

At Thursday’s hearing, counsel to APC candidate Abiodun Owonikoko told the apex court to set aside the judgement of the appeal Court arguing that the tribunal had failed to make pronouncement on the invalid electoral documents tendered as evidence before it.

INEC counsel, Mr Mohammed told the apex court that the tribunal only found blank spaces in some of the electoral forms and not on all the forms.

The lawyer said there was no evidence of forms that were improperly filled at the tribunal.

Counsel to the Governor, Chris Uche SAN asked the apex court chaired by Justice Inyang Okoro to dismiss what he called “the needless appeal”.

Uche said the appellants never brought any witnesses to speak to the electoral documents tendered at the tribunal.

“They did not have materials to support their case,” Uche argued, asking the court to dismiss the appeal.

After hearing the parties, Justice Okoro reserved judgment to a date to be communicated to the parties.