The Supreme Court, yesterday, upheld the elections of Samuel Ortom of Benue State and his counterpart in Adamawa State, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri.
Both governors, who are members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had their return as winners of the last governorship elections in their states challenged up to the Supreme Court by the candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the states.
In two separate judgments, yesterday, a seven-man panel, led by Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour, dismissed the two appeals filed by Emmanuel Jime, APC candidate in Benue and his counterpart in Adamawa State.
Members of the panel were unanimous that the appellants failed to provide cogent reasons to warrant them to tamper with the concurrent findings of the two lower courts (the election tribunal and Court of Appeal).
While summarising his decision, Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, who read the lead judgment in the Benue appeal, said a thorough analysis of the evidence presented by the appellants showed they failed to discharge the burden of proof place on them by the law.
Justice Ngwuta said: “In conclusion, I find that the concurrent judgments of the two lower courts are not to be tampered with. The appeal is hereby dismissed”.
Justice Dattijo Mohammed gave similar decision in the lead judgement he read in the Adamawa appeal.
Justice Mohammed was of the view that the appellants failed to establish their claim of over-voting as required by law.
He held that the two courts below were not wrong in disagreeing with the appellants, that they could rely on card reader reports and not call poling unit agents as witnesses in proving over-voting.
Justice Mohammed said it is the law that card reader reports cannot supplant voters’ register in proving over-voting.
“Resultantly, the two courts below are right to hold that the appellants failed to prove their case. This appeal is hereby dismissed.
“The second respondent’s return and declaration as the winner of the governorship election held in Adamawa State is further affirmed,” the judge said.
Other members of the panel agreed with both lead judgments.
Reacting, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has commended the Supreme Court for upholding the elections of Governors Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State, Bala Mohammed of Bauchi, Samuel Ortom of Benue and Ahmed Fintiri of Adamawa State.
The party maintained that its governors won the elections in their respective states and any disposition to the contrary would have further diminished the hard earned image of the highest court of the land as Nigerians know that the PDP won in those states.
In a statement, yesterday by the spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party insisted that the judgment on the four states would not in any way sway it to abandon or even diminish the nationwide agitation for a judicial review and reversal of the “miscarriage of justice” by the Court in its January 14, 2020, judgment on Imo State governorship election.
It noted that by upholding the Sokoto, Bauchi, Benue and Adamawa elections, the apex court has shown that it can still be trusted to assert its independence and can further redeem its image by immediately reversing its “defective and widely condemned” judgment on Imo state.
The party pointed out that Nigerians would still be agitated and the image, as well as public confidence on the Supreme Court, will still not be fully redeemed until the court summons the expected courage to review and reverse itself on the Imo judgment, in line with the consensus already expressed by citizens across board.
The statement said: “This is because the miscarriage of justice in the Imo judgment is glaring, given the established fact that the Supreme Court conjured strange figures as votes and donated same to the APC and its candidate, Senator Hope Uzodimma, and used the unfounded figure as basis to declare a party that came forth as winner of the election.
“What is most embarrassing is that in allocating the conjured figures to the APC, the Supreme Court became caught in a web, as total number of votes suddenly jumped to 950,952, over and above INEC’s 823, 743 official number of accredited voters for the election.
“The PDP insists that only a judicial review will guarantee justice in this matter as the PDP, the people of Imo state and Nigerians at large are not ready to allow the Supreme Court to impose a governor other than the person elected by the people at the poll.
“In congratulating Governors Tambuwal, Ortom, Fintiri and Bala Mohammed, the party urged them to continue in the path of good governance for which they were elected, in line with the manifesto and vision of the PDP”.
The party also called on all its elected and appointed officials as well as members, teeming supporters and Nigerians across board to continue the demand for a judicial review on Imo, adding that the PDP will continue to toe that path until justice is seen to have been done.