The Supreme Court will on Monday deliver judgment in the appeals challenging the election of Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State as well as Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State.
The apex court presided over by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, fixed the date after arguments have been taken from the lawyers involved in the legal battle.
The appellant in the case of Kano State, Abbah Kabir Yusuf, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had, through his counsel, Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), asked the Supreme Court to nullify the election that brought Ganduje to the office on the ground of the illegality of the election.
Awomolo in his argument informed the court that the Returning Officer with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had unlawfully cancelled elections in 207 polling units in the 44 local government areas of Kano State during the March last year gubernatorial election.
The senior counsel also pleaded with the apex court to nullify the result of the March 23, 2019, supplementary election conducted by the Returning Officer which led to the emergence of governor Ganduje adding that the supplementary election was unlawfully conducted after the purported cancellation
However, Dr Alex Izinyon (SAN), counsel to governor Ganduje urged the Supreme Court justices to dismiss the appeal for lacking in merit.
He said that contrary to the claim of the appellant, form EC8E is the final result sheet for the governorship election and not form EC8D adding that the appeal has no legs to stand upon.
Also, counsel to INEC, Ahmed Raji (SAN) sought dismissal of the appeal on the ground that there was no established evidence of election cancellation by any Returning Officer on the election day.
Raji told the Justices that the Returning Officer was unable to collate results in the 207 polling units due to violence and snatching of election results sheets.
He specifically informed the court that it was the agent of the appellant who allegedly snatched election results sheets prompting the conduct of the supplementary election in the affected polling units.
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Raji pleaded with the apex court to uphold the concurrent findings of the election petition tribunal and the Court of Appeal and sustain the election of Ganduje has been validly conducted and lawfully declared as the governor of Kano state.
The All Progressive Congress (APC) Sokoto State chapter and its governorship candidate in the 2019 general elections, Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto has dragged Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal before the Supreme Court over his reelection.
Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto in his submissions challenged the judgements of the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal and that of the Appeal Court that all dismissed his petitions for lack of merit.
Recall that the Tribunal and Appeal court had dismissed APC’s petition for lacking in merits on the 2nd of October and 22 of November, 2019 respectively.
The four-member justices of the Appeal Court, in their unanimous judgement read by presiding Justice Husseini, agreed that the petition filed by APC and its governorship candidate challenging the victory of Governor Tambuwal as upheld by the Tribunal was lacking in merit.
In pursuit of their legal course in the quest to upturn Tambuwal’s victory they, on Monday 2nd, 2019 filed an appeal before the Supreme Court on thirty-one grounds.
According to APC, dismissing its petition by both Courts was simply a miscarriage of justice, hence the call on Supreme Court to do the needful.
The APC said, in their Particulars of Errors as contained in the Notice of Appeal, that they are entitled to the reliefs sought in the Petition, having proved on the balance of probabilities and preponderance of evidence therein.
and then