As the Supreme Court resolved gubernatorial election disputes in eight states on Friday, it focused on Plateau State to point out the widespread electoral injustice fostered in the state by Court of Appeal decisions on cases arising from the general election of 2023.
In decisions condemned by the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal ordered the removal of Governor Caleb Muftwang of Plateau, and 23 federal and state legislators from the state.
The affected legislators are, like the governor, members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). They are two of the three senators representing the state in the Nigerian Senate, five of the eight members of the state House of Representatives and 16 of the 25 members of the state House of Assembly.
They had all won their seats on the PDP ticket, but their victories were reversed by Court of Appeal decisions last year.
Controversial decisions
In the reasoning that ran through the Court of Appeal’s decisions in all cases, it held that the PDP should not have been allowed to field candidates for last year’s general election.
This, he said, was because the party allegedly rejected a ruling by the Plateau State High Court ordering it to hold legal congresses to elect its executives at various levels before holding primaries to elect its candidates for the general elections. from last year. As a result of the party’s alleged disobedience to the court order, the court said that all votes polled by its candidates in the general elections were wasted votes.
Among the beneficiaries of the rulings was All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial candidate Nentawe Yilwatda, whose case the Court of Appeal upheld by declaring him the validly elected governor of the state in place of Governor Muftwang.
Another beneficiary is Simon Lalong of the APC, who the Court of Appeal declared winner of the Plateau South senatorial seat and removed Napoleon Bali of the PDP. In the February 25, 2023 senatorial election results declared by INEC, Bali had won the election with 148,844 votes and Lalong, then the incumbent governor of the state, was far behind with 91,674 votes.
Another 22 candidates, who had come second in the various elections, were declared by the Court of Appeal as winners of the state and National Assembly elections or were given the opportunity for a rerun after the PDP candidates were dismissed outright. , or their elections were declared. inconclusive.
The Supreme Court intervenes
But the judicial victory of Nentawe Yilwatda, the APC gubernatorial candidate in Plateau, was short-lived as the Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the flawed reasoning behind the judgment handed down in his favor last November.
The rest of the beneficiaries of the lower court’s controversial decisions, including Mr Lalong, got off scot-free as disputes over the state and National Assembly elections ended up in the Court of Appeal.
Delivering its decision on Mr. Muftwang’s appeal on Friday, the Supreme Court rebuked and dismissed the reasoning behind the controversial verdicts.
Emmanuel Agim, who delivered the main decision of the five-member panel of the Supreme Court, maintained that “We have held in a large number of cases that the sponsorship of a candidate for elections is an internal matter of a political party.”
He ruled that the Court of Appeals lacked jurisdiction to determine the validity of the PDP candidacy.
He also said that Yalwatda and his APC had no right to challenge the emergence of Governor Mutfwang as the PDP candidate.
The Supreme Court judge said the High Court order had nothing to do with the party’s power to conduct a primary election as it did to nominate Governor Mutfwang as its candidate for the gubernatorial election.
“The legal profession should wake up,” Agim said, indicating concern about the superficiality of a trend in which legal arguments raised by lawyers are upheld by the courts.
He reinstated the electoral court’s decision and confirmed Governor Mutfwang’s victory in the March 2023 elections.
The concern and impotence of the Supreme Court
The head of the five-member panel, Inyang Okoro, used his consent opinion to stand in solidarity with other victims of the Court of Appeal decision who were not entitled to a third-level review of their cases by the Supreme Court due to legal rules. . limitation.
“My only concern is that many people have suffered as a result of the Court of Appeal’s decision. It was absolutely wrong. The appeal is allowed,” Okoro said.
Another member of the panel, Helen Ogunwunmiju, also gave her consent, saying: “It was very wrong for the Court of Appeal to take up the issue of party congresses. To make matters worse, the party questioning the issue is another political party.”
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The rest of the panel members, Uwani Abba-Aji and Adamu Jauro, also agreed with the main judgment.
Apart from Plateau State, other states whose gubernatorial election disputes were resolved with the victories of sitting governors confirmed by the Supreme Court on Friday were Lagos, Abia, Zamfara, Kano, Cross River and Ebonyi.
For Zamfara, the Supreme Court upheld the election of PDP governor Dauda Lawal after reversing the decision of the Court of Appeal that had ordered a rerun in three local government areas in favor of APC candidate Bello Matawalle.
The court also upheld the election of Kano State Governor Abba Yusuf of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) after reversing the Court of Appeal ruling that sacked and replaced the APC candidate, Nasiru Gawuna.
None of the states in which the Court of Appeal rulings on the general election results were as radical as in Plateau.
Some decisions of the Court of Appeals on the Plateau elections
The controversial Court of Appeal decisions regarding the Plateau State legislative elections were handed down by three-member panels of the Court of Appeal, including those headed by Elfrieda Williams-Dawodu and Teni Hassan. The Williams-Dawodu panel consisted of Muhammed Mustapha and Okon Abang.
The panel annulled the election of Simon Mwadkwon of the PDP, who the electoral commission, INEC, had declared winner of the Plateau North senatorial seat in the February 25, 2023 election.
Instead of Mwadkwon, the court handed the electoral victory to Chris Giwa of the APC, who has since been sworn into the Nigerian Senate.
Appeals Court removes Senate minority leader, orders reelection
About a couple of weeks later, the same appeal court panel led by Mrs Williams-Dawodu pulled the rug out from under the PDP’s Napoleon Bali, who had won the Plateau South Senatorial District election.
Consequently, the panel declared former governor and state Labor Minister Simon Lalong the winner.
Not yet done, the appeal court has annulled the electoral victory of five members of the Plateau State House of Representatives who were elected on the platform of the PDP.
They are: Dachung Bagos (Jos South Jos East); Peter Gyendeng (Riyom/Barkin Ladi; Musa Agah (Jos North/Bassa); Beni Lar (Langtang North and South); and Isaac Kwalu (Shendam, Mikang and Quanpan) federal constituencies respectively.
A panel of judges handed the victories for the House of Representatives seat to Dalyop Chollom of the APC for Barkin-Ladi/Riyom, Ajang Iliya of the Labor Party for the Jos South/Jos East seat, Vincent Venman of the APC for Langtang North/Seat Langtang South.
Another Court of Appeal panel led by Teni Hassan announced Muhammad Alkali of the People’s Redemption Party as winner of the Jos North/Bassa federal constituency election.
Mr Abang declared John Dafa’an of the APC the legitimate representative of the Shendam/Quaapan/Mikang constituency.
Other victims of the appellate court’s rulings were 16 PDP members of the Plateau State House of Assembly whose electoral victories were annulled and their APC rivals were declared winners.
With the decisions, the majority of the 24-member assembly passed to the APC.
The victims of the decisions of the Plateau State House of Assembly are Timothy Datong (Riyom); Rimyat Nanbol (Langtang); Moisés Sule (Mikang); Salome Waklek (Pankshin); Bala Fwangje (Mangu South); Maren Ishaku (Bokkos); Dagogot (North Quaanpan); Nannim Langyi (Langtang North); Nimchak Tires (Langtang South); Danjuma Azi (Jos North West); Gwottson Fom (Jos South); Abubakar Sani Idris (Mangu North); Felicidad Akawu (Pengana); Ibrahim Abalak (Rukuba/Irigwe); Philip Jwe (Barkin Ladi); and Cornelius Deyok (Qua’apan Sur).
But the Court of Appeal sacked Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang on similar grounds: the PDP had no structure and could not have fielded candidates for the 2023 elections in the state.
But it was saved by the Supreme Court, which is the final court in gubernatorial election disputes, unlike state and federal post-election legislative disputes that must end up in the Court of Appeals.
The ruling revives calls for more cases to reach the Supreme Court
The Plateau case has raised questions about trusting the Court of Appeal with final decisions on matters, amid popular calls for an amendment to the law to limit the volume of cases reaching the Supreme Court.
Speaking to Newslodge, Jibrin Okutepa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), asked whether it was “desirable to make the Court of Appeal the final court in electoral matters relating to parliamentary elections at both the federal and state levels.”
The lawyer agreed with the Supreme Court that the judiciary has to be prudent in the way it “treats the concept of judicial precedents.”
He said respect for judicial precedents “is crucial to the stability and predictable outcome of litigation.”
Pondering the issue, an outspoken critic of the ugly developments in the Nigerian judiciary, Chidi Odinkalu, said the Court of Appeal overthrew all members of the PDP in Plateau who were elected to the legislature.
Odinkalu, former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), referring to the Supreme Court decision, said the appellate court decisions that sacked the legislators were “crooked”.
But Alphonsus Alubo, a law professor at the University of Jos, Plateau State, blamed the lawyers for filing frivolous lawsuits and called for tougher sanctions against such conduct.