The Supreme Court of Nigeria has Declared Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State, Ahmed Aliyu of Sokoto State, and Agbu Kefas of Taraba State as Duly Elected Governors of their respective states.
A five-member panel of the apex court led by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun delivered the judgements on Thursday, January 25, 2024.
Recall that on Friday, last week, the court in a similar judgement declared Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State, Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State, Sherrif Oborevwori of Delta State, Nasir Idris Kauran of Kebbi State, and Uba Sani of Kaduna as Duly Elected Governors of their states.
However, in its lead judgement today, the court affirmed the victory of Fubara as the duly elected governor of Rivers state, and dismissed an appeal filed by Tonye Cole, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the March 18, 2023 governorship election in the state.
Cole had approached the Supreme Court to remove Fubara as governor, alleging that the election was marred by irregularities. But Justice Ibrahim Saulawa who read the lead judgment, dismissed Cole’s appeal for failure to prove the allegations made in his petition.
For Sokoto State, the court declared Ahmed Aliyu as the duly elected governor of the state and dismissed the appeal of Saidu Umar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
In a judgement delivered by Justice Tijjani Abubakar, the court dismissed an appeal filed by the PDP, and its candidate, Saidu Umar, to challenge the outcome of the governorship election held in the state on March 18, 2023.
The Court upheld the judgments of the Court of Appeal and the Sokoto State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which dismissed the appeal seeking to nullify Governor Aliyu’s election.
For Taraba State, the court declared Agbu Kefas as Duly Elected Governor of the state, and dismissed the appeal by the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP) and its governorship candidate, Yahaya Sani for lacking in merit.
Sani had asked the apex court to set aside the victory of Kefas in the March 18, 2023, governorship election, but in a judgement delivered by Lawal Garba, the panel dismissed the appeal, and held that the appeal was incompetent on the ground that the appellants’ record of appeal was incomplete.
