The Supreme Court in its reasons for affirming the elections of governors of Akwa Ibom, Oyo, Delta, Yobe states, has said the cases of their opponents against them were not proved.
The Supreme Court on Monday gave reasons for dismissing the appeals by Rashidi Ladoja of Accord Party (Oyo), Great Ogboru of Labour party (Delta) and Adamu Waziri of the Peoples Democratic Party (Yobe ).
In the case of Udom Emmanuel of the PDP in Akwa Ibom State, the court said his appeal succeeded because the Court of Appeal and the trial tribunal misdirected themselves in holding that the petitioners – Umana Umana and his party, the All progressives Congress, proved their case to warrant the nullification of the election.
The apex court in its reasons for dismissing the appeals by Ladoja, Ogboru and Waziri, held that the appellants wrongly relied “heavily on card reader reports”.
The apex court also said they failed to meet the standard of proof required of them.
It also noted that where the appellants made allegations of criminal conduct like violence, snatching of ballot boxes, thuggery, they failed prove such allegations beyond reasonable doubt as required in law.
On allegation of non-compliance with Electoral Act and disenfranchisement, the court held that it was for the petitioners to have proved non-compliance by tendering voters’ register and statement of results from all polling units as against relying on the card reader reports.
Justice Clara Bata Ogunbiyi, who read the lead judgment on Ladoja’s appeal said, “the appellant, asides failing to give compelling reasons why the concurrent decisions of the two lower courts should be set aside, has also conceded to various crucial findings of the lower court as stated earlier in this judgment and has failed to appeal against them.”
She ruled, “It is also bewildering for the appellant to embark on a hurricane task of proving its case of non-compliance with Electoral Act in hundreds of polling units across 17 LGAs of Oyo state through the evidence of PW1 only. The witness’ evidence is nothing but a sham for having crumbled like a loaf of bread soaked in hot water.
“The totality of this appeal deserves nothing less than a dismissal for lacking in merit.”
Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad in his lead judgment on Ogboru’s appeal and Justice Mary Peter-Odili in her lead with respect to Waziri’s appeal, expressed similar view as Justice Ogunbiyi.
Justice Centus Nweze, in the appeal by Governor Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State against the Court of Apeal judgment, nullifying his election, held that the tribunal and the Court of Appeal were in error to have held that the petitioners (Umana and APC) proved their cases to have warranted the nullification of the Akwa Ibom governorship election.
“The only mode of proving disenfranchisement is by calling at least one registered voter polling unit by polling unit, etc as enunciated in the cases I had referred to before now
“The petitioners failed to discharge the burden of proving their criminal allegations, as shown above, just as they did not discharge the burden of proving non-compliance with the Electoral Act. What is more, they failed to prove their entitlement to the reliefs sought in their petition.
“Instead of proving their claim on disenfranchisement by the production of voters’ register and testimonies polling unit-by-polling unit, they placed reliance on the card reader (exhibit 317).
“Curiously, most of their documents lacked any probative value since their makers were not called for the purpose of testing their credibility and probing the veracity of the said document.
“The hiatuses in their case have been pointed out in the reasons for this judgment and there is no pointrepeating them here. Having resolved all the issues in favour of the appellant, I find that this appeal must be, and is hereby, allowed as being meritorious,” Justice Nweze said.