The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, on Friday, affirmed the election of Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State.
The court, in a unanimous decision by a three-member panel of Justices, dismissed an appeal the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Mohammed Ashiru, filed to challenge the outcome of the governorship election that was held in the state on March 18.
In its lead judgement that was delivered by Justice Obietonbara Daniel-Kalio, the court upheld the verdict of the Kaduna State Election Petition Tribunal, which validated Governor Sani’s election.
It held that the tribunal was right in its majority decision when it declared the petition by the PDP and its candidate as abandoned.
According to the appellate court, records before it established that the petitioners acted in breach of Paragraph 18(1) of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act 2022 when they prematurely applied to the tribunal for the issuance of a pre-hearing notice.
Noting that the law provided that such an application must be filed seven days after the close of pleadings by the parties, the court waved aside the argument of the Appellants that they acted “out of the abundance of caution.”
It held that vigilance in prosecuting a matter could not be equated with jumping the gun, adding that one of the essential elements for the exercise of jurisdiction by a court “is that a case must be initiated by due process of the law.”
Besides, the court maintained that statements on oath that were made by most of the witnesses who testified for the Appellants were invalid as they were not filed alongside the petition.
It was held that the failure to frontload statements of the witnesses within the 21-day period prescribed for filing the petition rendered them legally incompetent.
The appellate court held that most of the witnesses who testified for the petitioners gave hearsay evidence.
The court said it was satisfied that the tribunal properly evaluated the evidence that was adduced before it by the parties and accorded probative value to them.
It resolved all the five issues that were raised in the appeal, against the Appellants.
“The appeal lacks merit and it is accordingly dismissed. Parties are to bear their respective costs,” the court held.
More so, the court, while deciding a Cross-Appeal that was filed by Governor Sani, voided an alternative order that was made by the tribunal, which directed the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to conduct a fresh poll in 22 polling units within four Local Government Areas in the state.
The court held that the tribunal relied on documents with discrepancies as well as hearsay evidence from discredited witnesses, to declare the governorship election as inconclusive.
Other members of the panel of the appellate court that agreed with the lead judgement, were Justices James Abundaga and Mohammed Idris.
It will be recalled that INEC had declared that Governor Sani, who was the flag-bearer of the All Progressives Congress, APC, garnered 730,001 votes to defeat the PDP candidate, Ashiru, who polled 719,196 votes.
However, dissatisfied with the result of the election, the PDP and its candidate approached the tribunal to challenge it.
The Petitioners alleged that Governor Uba was not duly elected by a majority of valid votes cast in the election, adding that the election was invalid by reason of corrupt practices and non compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.
They alleged that some polling unit results were wrongfully cancelled, insisting that there were inconsistencies in accreditation records from INEC.
However, the tribunal, in the judgement it delivered on September 28, dismissed the petition on technical grounds and upheld Sani’s election victory.
The Justice Victor Oviawie-led tribunal, in its majority decision, said it deemed the petition abandoned, noting that the PDP and its candidate did not file their pre-hearing application within the time prescribed by the law.
Even though the tribunal dismissed the petition as abandoned, it, however, held that if it was to determine the case on its merits, it would have ordered INEC to conduct a supplementary election in 22 polling units in the state, within 90 days.
Likewise, the tribunal, in its alternative decision, found merit in the case of the Petitioners relating to the margin of win between the two leading candidates.
It was noted that the difference between votes that were credited to the APC and PDP candidates, was about 10, 806 votes, while the total number of votes in areas where the results of the election were cancelled, was about 16, 423 votes.
It held that the results of supplementary elections in the affected polling units were capable of substantially affecting the overall outcome of the governorship election.
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