Election And The Judiciary

By Segun Opeyemi

In Nigeria, the proper description of ‘Electoral season’ does not stop at the announcement of result of the election. Rather, it captures the date of announcement of intention to contest by aspirants of different political parties until the pronouncement of the Supreme Court on the election. The 2023 governorship elections was conducted in 28 states by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on March 11, 2023 across Nigeria.

As declared by INEC, APC won 16 states, PDP won 10, NNPP won 1 (Kano) and LP won 1 (Abia). Notable states lost by the ruling APC includes Kano, Zamfara, Plateau states while PDP lost Abia, Benue, and Sokoto states.

Following the judgements of the Tribunal and the Appellate courts on the election petitions across various states, there have been genuine concern on the quality of judicial pronouncements and intense scrutiny on what appears to be a strategy to ‘win’ more states to the ruling party APC.

From ‘clerical error’ in Kano state, to ‘validity of primary election’ in Plateau state and ‘inadmissible evidence’ in Nasarawa state, we highlight the pronouncements of the court of appeal in declaring the ruling party APC as the legitimate winner of the elections and the controversy it has generated.

KANO STATE
The appeal court judgement for the Kano state governorship election is indeed an interesting one, not because it upholds the decision of the lower tribunal court (at least in audio) but because it was premised on another ground of the petition.

While the tribunal ruled that about 165,000 ballot papers cast for the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) and Governor Abba Yusuf are invalid due to absence of INEC official stamp, signature and date, the appeal court delved into the validity of Gov Yusuf’s party membership as at the time of nomination.

According to the unanimous judgement read by Moore Adumeh U. held that “A person must be a member of a political party before he can be sponsored for an election, sponsorship without membership is like putting something on nothing”.

But that was not the end, political commentators were not done arguing the validity of Governor Yusuf membership or otherwise when the Appeal court released the Certified true copies of the judgement and added a new twist to the debate. The CTC did not only read that the appellant court upturned the decision of the lower tribunal sacking Governor Yusuf, it also awarded the sum of one million naira only as fine for the candidate of the All Progressive Congress, Mr. Nasiru Gawuna.

Confused as everyone was, the Appeal court through its registrar claimed it was a “clerical error” and ordered the parties to return the CTC to the court for correction. Yes, for correction, more than 72 hours after the judgement was delivered.

Does that mean Mr Adumeh read an entirely different judgement in court? Because it is assume that what was read in court was what was typed in the CTC document (or not). Or the court has now upgraded to the point of writing two opposing judgements so it can decide which one to read depending on the mood in court?

Reacting to the request to swap the CTC, counsel to Governor Yusuf, Mr Wole Olanipekun SAN declared that the appeal court has lost its jurisdiction to correct or amend errors on the Kano appeal “Assuming without conceding that the judgement has some errors, whether typographical or otherwise, we humbly and dutifully draw your attention to the fact that the court of appeal became functus officio in the matter on Saturday, November 18, 2023”.

Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, a former Chairman of National Human Rights Commission while reacting to the strange discovery declared that “No judiciary that is credible will produce this kind of judgment and certify it. This is the court of Appeal of Nigeria, the second highest court in the country. Any lawyer worth their onions should be scandalized by it irrespective of whatever side you take”

Mr Femi Falana (SAN) was openly critical of the development but confidently declared that relying on the CTC of the judgement, the court of appeal upheld Governor Yusuf election. “Contrary to the impression that has been given out there, the majority judgement of the Court of Appeal has confirmed that the judgement of the lower court was wrong, and has set it aside in writing, upheld the Appeal and granted all the reliefs sought by Governor Abba. So, you ask yourself, what’s going on?”

So let us ask ourselves, what exactly is going on???

PLATEAU
One of the most popular factor to be considered in election litigation is the validity of nomination of candidates. While the Appeal Court held in Tinubu vs Obi that membership of political party and party nomination is a party affair and a pre election matter, it reverses itself in Plateau State.

The Appeal court judgement on Plateau governorship election caused another uproar when Elfrieda Williams-Dawodu held that Manasseh was not validly sponsored by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the election.

This pronouncement upturned the Tribunal judgement which held that the issue of nomination of Mutfwang Manasseh as a PDP candidate is a pre election matter.

Of course, the matter is expected to proceed to the Supreme Court where we are expecting a finite judgement on the topic of nomination and party membership either as a pre election matter or post election matter or both.

Commenting on this development, Mr Femi Falana SAN, argued that voters should not be puncihsed for the Offences of electoral officers thereby called for a reform of the electoral processes. “We must go back to Justice Uwais Electoral Committee recommendations, which were adopted by the 2014 National Conference, adopted by the Lemu Committee, adopted by the Ken Nnamani Electoral Reform Committee so that we can begin to hold elections that will reflect the will of the people.”

“We must have a common standard whereby the wishes of the people must be respected. You cannot say you want to punish somebody for the errors of INEC electoral officials, as was the case in Kano. That is almost scandalous.”

NASARAWA

Another state where the Appeal court upturned the tribunal judgement is Nasarawa state Appeal court judgement. The Tribunal had nullified the election of Governor Abdullah Sule on the basis of a witness statement backed with results of the various polling units and forms EC 8A and prove to the tribunal that the results were manipulated in favour of the APC.

Delivering the appeal judgment, the three-member panel led by Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam, held that the Tribunal erroneously relied on what it termed ‘inadmissible evidence’ to nullify Governor Sule’s election. It further went to state that the Tribunal was legally bound to act on witness statements filed along with the petition or front-loaded within 21 days stipulated by law.

In summary, the appeal court held that the tribunal erred by admitting the evidence of the PDP candidate and thereby upturned the judgement.

Again, all road leads to the Supreme Court!