There is palpable anxiety among party stakeholders and supporters ahead of the Supreme Court judgement expected to be delivered this month on the various petitions challenging the rulings of the Court of Appeal on the governorship elections.
After the 18th March 2023 governorship elections, some of the aggrieved candidates and their parties challenged the declaration of some of their opponents as winners by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Unsatisfied by the verdicts pf the governorship election tribunals, the parties went to the Courts of appeal, and ended up at the Supreme Court.
Kano, Plateau, Zamfara, Lagos, Ogun, Nasarawa, Benue, and Bauchi States are among those expecting the final judgement from the apex court.
Kano
In Kano State, anxiety has continued to mount as residents await the apex court ruling on the state governorship election dispute as supporters of the two parties in the state; the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), stage protests and rallies against and for the judgement of the Appeal Court.
The appellate court affirmed the verdict of the tribunal that sacked Governor Abba Yusuf and declared the APC candidate, Dr. Nasiru Gawuna, as the authentic winner.
Supporters of the NNPP have continued to fault the Appeal Court ruling, especially the controversy surrounding the claim that two different judgements were delivered, which were against and also in favour of the incumbent governor.
On the contrary, the APC supporters continued to hail the two judgements.
The anxiety in the state had compelled the state Police Commissioner, Useini Gumel to ban all protests or rallies and forced the leadership of both parties to sign a peace accord, even though this has not yielded much result as there were incidents of violence.
A chieftain of APC in the state, Alhaji Alhassan Yaryasa told Saturday PUNCH that NNPP supporters should be blamed for the tension in the state.
“You see all that the NNPP supporters are doing is just to get public sympathy because they didn’t win the governorship election at the beginning”, he said.
Efforts to speak with the state NNPP Chairman, Alhaji Hashimu Dungurawa failed as he did not respond to several phone calls.
Plateau
Plateau is one of the states that flipped to the PDP in the 2023 general elections with Barrister Caleb Mutfwang polling 525,299 votes, while the candidate of the APC, Dr. Nentawe Goshwe scored 481,370 votes in the 18th March governorship election in the state.
Goshwe challenged Mutfwang’s victory at the tribunal, claiming that the governor was not validly nominated and sponsored by his party. He also said there was non-compliance with the Electoral Act in the election.
The tribunal dismissed Goshwe’s petition for lacking merit and upheld Mutfwang’s victory.
But in November, the three-member Court of Appeal panel, under the leadership of Justice Elfrieda Williams-Dawodu, cited Section 177 of the Constitution to hold that the governor was not legitimately the PDP’s election sponsor.
The court nullified Mutfwang’s victory and ordered INEC to withdraw his certificate of return and issue a new one to the APC candidate.
However, the governor appealed the judgement, and the case is currently awaiting the decision of the Supreme Court.
Zamfara
In the March 2023 election, Mr. Dauda Lawal of the PDP scored 377,726 to defeat then incumbent governor, Alhaji Bello Matawalle, the candidate of the APC.
Dissatisfied with the outcome, Matawalle, who has since been appointed the Minister of State for Defence by President Bola Tinubu, filed a petition at the tribunal.
The tribunal ruled in favour of Lawal but Matawalle and the APC appealed the judgement.
In November, the Court of Appeal sacked Lawal and ordered INEC to conduct fresh elections in Maradun Local Government, in four wards in Birnin Magaji Local Government and in some polling units in Bukkuyum Local Government.
However, the PDP appealed the ruling, hoping that the Supreme Court will rule in its favour.
Benue
Some residents of the state expressed fear over the possible outcome of the judgement. One of them, who simply identified himself only as Julius, said that the civil servants and retirees in the state were currently in prayers for the governor to win at the apex court.
However, both the publicity secretaries of the ruling APC and the opposition PDP, Daniel Ihomun and Bemgba Iortyom respectively expressed confidence in the expected riling. While the APC believed that the governor convincingly won the election, the PDP stressed its hope of getting justice at the Supreme Court.
Ogun
The PDP in the state has re-echoed its optimism of upturning Governor Dapo Abiodun’s victory at the apex court.
The Secretary of the party, Dr. Sunday Solarin said that the mandate was given to the party’s governorship candidate, Hon. Oladipupo Adebutu, but was allegedly stolen by the APC, even as he (Solarin) expressed the hope that the mandate would return as the rightful winner.
But the APC’s Publicity Secretary, Hon. Tunde Oladunjoye charged Adebutu to concentrate on the allegations of vote-buying and money laundering levelled against him rather than misleading their members and the public with “boastful desperation, false hope”.
Lagos
In Lagos, the Head of Media and Communications for Jandor4Governor Campaign Organisation, Mr. Gbenga Ogunleye told Saturday PUNCH that the state chapter of the PDP and its governorship candidate, Dr. Olajide Adediran would be victorious at the Supreme Court.
He explained that the focus of their petition at the apex court was to challenge the qualification of the declared winner, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the APC, as laid down in the electoral law, adding that the justices of the Supreme Court would look at the facts of the matter before delivering the justice.
The state APC chairman, Pastor Cornelius Ojelabi said: “The judgement will soon be delivered and it doesn’t make sense for us to start making commentary on that.
“We’ve been to the tribunal and Appeal Courts and we won. They went for the first and second and they failed. It is a matter of days for the Supreme Court to pronounce the judgement and that will be the end of the story”.
Nasarawa
In a split judgement of two to one, the Nasarawa State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal had earlier nullified the election of Governor Abdullahi Sule of the APC and declared Hon. David Ombugadu of the PDP as the winner of the election.
However, the Appeal Court, in a unanimous judgement, reversed the verdict of the tribunal and upheld Sule’s election after which the matter was taken to the Supreme Court.
