S’Court affirmed Kefas, Fubara and Aliyu as duly elected governors

Kangmwa GofwenJanuary 26, 20241 Mins read130

The Supreme Court has upheld the election of Governors Agbu Kefas, of Taraba, Siminalayi Fubara, of Rivers and Ahmed Aliyu of Sokoto.

Declaring the judgment today, the five-member panel, led by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, dismissed the Appeal Court decision in the three elections in separate judgements.

In the case of Agbu Kefas, of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) versus the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) governorship candidate, Yahaya Sani, the panel held that the appeal was incompetent on the grounds that the appellants’ record of appeal was incomplete.

On the Sokoto State election, the Supreme Court, affirmed the election of Ahmed Aliyu as the Governor of the state, dismissing the appeal of Saidu Umar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Justice Tijani Abubakar delivered the judgment of the panel.

The appellant had challenged the election of Aliyu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 election. Umar and the PDP had asked the Supreme Court to set aside the concurrent judgments of the Court of Appeal and the Tribunal.

And of Rivers, the Supreme Court affirmed the election of Siminalayi Fubara as Governor of Rivers State.

In the Rivers matter, Partick Tonye Cole, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress challenged the election of Governor Fubara on grounds that he wasn’t qualified to run for governor as he was still an employee of the Rivers State government as Accountant General as at the time of the election.

Fubara of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was declared winner of the governorship election after he scored 302,614 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Cole, who polled 95,274 votes.

Both the Tribunal and Appeal Court had in concurrent judgments dismissed Mr Cole’s case for lacking merit and for failing to provide credible evidence to prove his case.