The results of the governorship elections in Nigeria, which took place on March 18, 2023, have been decided by a number of tribunals.
This includes, but is not limited to, the states of Kano, Bauchi, Zamfara, Plateau, Benue, Enugu, Lagos, Cross River, and Gombe.
On both sides of the ideological divide, individuals have reacted differently to the verdicts that have been handed down thus far.
Some have praised the rulings, saying they accurately reflect the law, while others have pounced, calling certain rulings a complete miscarriage of justice.
It appears that the verdicts in the states of Kano and Enugu are the most contentious of those that have been handed down so far.
Abba Yusuf, the current governor of Kano State and the nominee of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, was removed from office on September 20 after an electoral petition tribunal ruled against him.
The certificate of return granted to Yusuf was revoked after the tribunal issued a ruling via internet ordering INEC to do so.
It recognized Nasir Gawuna, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for governor of Kano State.
According to DAILY POST’s recount, Yusuf received 1,019,000 votes on March 18 and defeated Gawuna, who received 890,705 votes, to become governor. Unhappy with the outcome, Gawuna and his party submitted a petition to overturn Yusuf’s victory.
The tribunal ruled against Yusuf by a margin of 165, 663 votes because the ballots in question lacked the official INEC stamp, signature, and date needed by law.
According to the ruling, INEC must provide the APC candidate a certificate of return and throw out 165,663 votes.
The tribunal claims that the NNPP and Yusuf produced evidence that was used against them.
Based on the fact that the first respondent provided certified true copies of all the critical electoral documents, the court concluded that there was clear evidence to conclude that the second respondent did not win the March 18 election in Kano State.
Pro-Yusuf protesters chanted slogans as they clashed with police shortly after the verdict was announced. They argued that Yusuf was the one they elected and that no court could force them to support someone else.
The demonstrators almost caused anarchy when they turned violent, setting fire to and destroying millions of Naira’s worth of public and private property. State officials felt compelled to implement a statewide curfew in response to the unfolding crisis.
The NNPP’s National Working Committee (NWC) responded to the verdict by calling it a “laughable and nothing short of pure miscarriage of justice.”
Abba Kawu Ali, the party’s acting national chairman, has promised an appeal of the ruling.
A statement from the party read as follows: “New Nigeria People’s Party received with total bewilderment and disbelief the judgement of the Kano State Election Petition Tribunal on the March 18, 2023, Governorship elections.
“The reported verdict blatantly awarded the election to the APC’s candidate, Nasiru Gawuna, and invalidated the free, credible, and worldwide recognised fair election of our governorship candidate, Abba Kabir Yusuf.
The Tribunal’s decision was unreasonable since it gave the election to the APC’s candidate by unlawfully deducting 165,663 votes from the Governor’s total. By doing so, the Tribunal is reiterating its position that the APC candidate’s vote total is final and cannot be challenged.
The decision made by the three-person Kano State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal is a complete farce and travesty of justice.
The Tribunal’s ruling is an insult to constitutionalism and the rule of law, and it has the potential to further undermine public faith in the judicial system.
In granting election results to those who clearly lost the poll, the Tribunal has simply reenacted the wicked screenplay of 2019, which the NNPP recalls with regret. The NNPP intends to challenge the ruling because it is unfair. We urge the country’s many millions of our backers in Kano and beyond to keep the peace.
Dipo Olayoku, the party’s national secretary, added that parties could not be held responsible for INEC’s shortcomings while still maintaining that the ruling was dubious and contrary to the Electoral Act.
In response to claims that the APC is desperate to take control of Kano State, APC counsel Sanusi Musa said that the NNPP and the state administration were the ones who had actually threatened unrest in the state.
In contrast, tech analyst Wale Shaibu argued that the APC is unlikely to willingly cede Kano State.
You are aware of the importance of Kano State in the next presidential elections, as you are of Lagos’s importance in the general election. In my opinion, no side wants to risk losing the state. “They will resort to any measure necessary to retake the state,” he said.
Others, however, argue that if Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had won the election, Yusuf would have been able to withstand the APC’s assault.
A practicing attorney named Ahmed Tanimu emphasized this view firmly when he remarked, “Kano overwhelmingly voted for Yusuf, however, the devil that is affecting the mandate is because Atiku did not win the presidential poll.” If Atiku had been victorious, the tribunal could not have forced him out of government.
Also sparking debate is the Enugu Tribunal’s decision, which affirmed Governor Peter Mbah’s election and rejected the petition of the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Chijioke Edeoga.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced on March 22 that Mbah, the PDP candidate, had won the March 18 governorship election in the state with 160,895 votes against 157,552 for his nearest challenger, Edeoga.
Edeoga was dissatisfied with the outcome and appealed Mbah’s election victory to a tribunal. The petition filed by the LP candidate included allegations that Mbah had submitted a fraudulent discharge certificate from the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), which would render his election null and void.
On Thursday, a three-person tribunal presided over by Kudirat Akano ruled against the petition, finding that Edeoga had not provided sufficient evidence to support his claim that Mbah had presented a falsified certificate to INEC.
The tribunal determined that Sections 177 and 138 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, did not include the NYSC discharge certificate as one of the criteria of a person for the position of governor.
A Senior Secondary School Certificate or its equivalent is a minimum academic qualification for election to the office of governor in accordance with Section 177 of the constitution, and the court ruled that Mbah was qualified to contest the election even without submitting any such certificate.
The panel argued that Mbah’s election could not be nullified on the basis of non-qualifying because he had not submitted the NYSC certificate to support his qualification for the post.
The tribunal rejected the LP’s claim that Mbah did not receive a majority of valid votes at the poll because Justice Akano ruled that Edeoga failed to prove that there was non-use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) during the election in Nkanu East Local Government Area.
In any case, the tribunal agreed with Edoga that he had established his claim of overvoting in several Amagu Ugbawka, Nkanu East Local Government Area polling units.
In contrast, the LP and its candidate Edeoga have already rejected the tribunal judgment and threatened to challenge it in court.
Edeoga’s spokesman, George Ugwu, said, “We wish to convey the acknowledgment by the Labour Party and its candidate, Chijioke Edeoga, of the judgement as delivered at the tribunal, and to state our preparedness to challenge the outcome of this judgement at the Court of Appeal, and to all extents as permitted by law.”
The Governor of Enugu State, Mr. Mbah, thought the ruling was just and hailed it as a triumph for democracy and the state of Enugu.
He also welcomed the opposition candidates and political parties into his circle of friends, adding that everyone’s help was needed to develop Enugu State.
‘There is a time for everything,’ Mbah replied. Now is the moment to work together and make progress. Each of us has volunteered to help the Ndi Enugu.
“Both the people and the court have spoken, and they agree. If service is the driving force, then it’s time to put politics aside and work together to get things done.
“I call out to my brothers who finished this marathon with us, inviting them to join us in the difficult work of constructing the new Enugu State of our aspirations.
“In the same way, I urge all our backers to show grace and generosity upon our triumph. All political activity has ceased. On May 29 we were inaugurated and thus began our term as rulers. Let’s band together now.
The president of the Middle Belt Forum, MBF, Dr. Pogu Bitrus, has weighed in on the rulings by the governorship election tribunals across the country. He is not a lawyer and so cannot comment on the validity or otherwise of some of the judgments, but he insists that any judgement based on a technicality will be overturned at a higher court.
“The problem with the tribunal’s judgment is something I cannot adequately address because I am not a lawyer,” he stated. Moreover, I am not a legal professional, so I will refrain from commenting on the legitimacy of the ruling.
“For the time being, all we’d like to do is give them the benefit of the doubt, and if they based their decision on a technicality rather than the law, it will, of course, be overturned by a higher court in the future. Let’s give it some time, and if the petitioners aren’t happy with the outcome, we should encourage them to appeal to a higher court. I have faith that justice, whether it is Kano’s or Enugu’s, would prevail in the end.
Maxi Okwu, a lawyer and former national chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, commented on the recent verdict on the governorship race in Enugu. He praised the judges for issuing the judgement in record time, but alleged that they flipped the judgement upside down.
His words were, “I just got a copy of the Enugu verdict and I must compliment the tribunal for being so speedy. I think it’s great that the verdict was issued so quickly, since that’s how it should be.
But I question the soundness of their discretion. From my perspective, they flipped the verdict on its head. Although I have not read the entire judgment, I understand that the Court of Appeal and, maybe, the Supreme Court will need to weigh in on some points.
He said that Mbah’s National Youth Service Certificate problem was not adequately resolved.
He found fault with the part of the petition that asked Edeoga to provide the original forgery and emphasized that only the NYSC was authorized to do so.
I do not believe the problem of forgery was well addressed. No one is arguing that NYSC service is necessary to run for governor, but the same constitution makes it clear that anyone who presents a forged document to INEC as part of the requirements to run for office will be disqualified; and the only organization that can prove whether a document or certificate is forged or not is the organization that issued it.
Given that the NYSC submitted evidence and the certificate was struck, how can anybody reasonably expect the petitioner to produce the original? How can testimony from a witness who has been subpoenaed be excluded from court proceedings? Let me read the entire decision first, but initial impressions are not good. But I’m confident that justice will be done in the appellate courts,” he insisted.
Although he has not read the Kano gubernatorial tribunal’s ruling, he has heard rumors of impending peril and therefore feels compelled to comment on it.
“For the Kano tribunal, I have not read their judgement but from what I gathered from the media, it is another recipe for disaster,” he remarked.
It was puzzling to him that APC would take the matter to court after its candidate had conceded and congratulated the victor.
The APC candidate admitted defeat; his political organization filed suit. That’s a hilarious turn of events. It’s not that the party doesn’t have legal standing; it’s that the individual they presented as their witness flatly refused to appear in court and instead applauded the winner.
It’s not over in most of these locations, but let’s see how things pan out. There are still two more courts to go through before a governorship is decided.
Let’s see how things develop, but the outlook is not promising. Concurrent panels have been sending us a variety of conflicting decisions. Let’s wait and see what happens with them in the higher ups’ hands, he said.
Yerima Shettima, head of the Arewa Youths Consultative Forum (AYCF), also spoke, and he agreed that some of the decisions up to this point had been reflective of the people’s actual desire. He praised INEC for the fairness of the election and called for additional changes to the electoral legislation to improve the accuracy of future votes.
Some of the verdicts have accurately reflected the people’s desire so far, while others may not hold up under appeal. There are irregularities in every election.
Since “we are learning and will continue to learn,” he said, “we must commend INEC for a good job, while looking forward to further amendments and corrections.”
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