… Says APC Deputy-Governor-Elect Degi-Eremienyo filed forged certificate
… Orders INEC to issue fresh certificates to candidates of party with next highest votes, PDP
… Decision caps a month of legal zingers from the apex court, and likely puts paid to prospect for review of Imo State case
By Chudi Okoye and Ndu Chris Nwannah, ATM Guest Writer
Phew! What a month it has been at the Nigerian Supreme Court!
On Thursday 13 February 2020, the court delivered a dramatic judgement overturning the election of the Bayelsa State governorship candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the federal governing party in Nigeria, in favour of the competing tickets of the federal opposition, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
This caps a month of election-related decisions by the Supreme Court.
Since mid-January, the apex court has delivered what seems to be an unceasing spate of judicial thrillers as it pronounced on the tumble of governorship election cases brought before it by politicians and their political parties. In the jumble of judgements it has delivered, some – mainly those whose cases crumbled in the court – have said the court stumbled or even bungled its legal reasoning. And there has been not a mere mumble but a loud rumble for judicial redress, and even calls for international intervention to force a reversal of some of the court’s judgements. Nigerians at home and some in the diaspora have been agitating for ‘justice’. In the US, for instance, some are orchestrating a campaign asking the US government to impose travel ban specifically targeting the Nigerian Supreme Court justices for their alleged partisan rulings. Critics allege that the court is in the pocket of the federal governing party, APC.
But it is hard to graph the judgements of the Supreme Court justices on election cases these past 30 days quite as simplistically as that. Much the majority of the court’s thrillers this past month has been an equitable vanilla, simply affirming elections of the declared winners and throwing out the petition of the challengers. But some other of the court’s thrillers have been undeniable chillers, overturning the election of the declared winners. And the court has delivered its hot and cold judicial dishes alike to candidates of both national political parties in Nigeria – APC and PDP.
On 14 January 2020 the Supreme Court delivered a bombshell ruling cooling the election of PDP’s Emeka Ihedioha as Imo State governor, and ordered that APC’s Hope Uzodinma, an improbable candidate by most accounts, should be sworn in as the legitimate governor of the state.
Right on the heels of that dramatic ruling, the following week the apex court dropped a string of decisions in other governorship election cases. But this time, instead of election reversals the court offered universal dismissals, simply ruling against the petitions brought before it. In several rulings delivered between January 20 and 21:
- The court rejected PDP petition against APC’s Abdullahi Ganduje, thus affirming the latter as Kano State governor.
- It affirmed the election of PDP’s Aminu Tambuwal as Sokoto State governor, chucking out APC’s challenge.
- It upheld PDP’s Bala Mohammed as governor of Bauchi State, giving short shrift to APC challenge.
- It endorsed the re-election of PDP’s Samuel Ortom as governor of Benue State, rejecting APC appeal.
- It upheld the re-election of APC’s Simon Lalong as governor of Plateau State, frowning upon PDP’s petition.
This string of judgements, maintaining the status quo as it were, might have suggested a court with little appetite for more drama after the shocking decision still rocking Imo State.
But anyone expecting a diffident court in upcoming cases was soon to be disappointed. On Thursday 13 February, a month to the day when it delivered the Imo State shocker, there was another knocker from the Supreme Court: the court laid down a ruling overturning the election of APC’s David Lyon, who had been preparing to be sworn in as executive governor of Bayelsa State on Friday, 14 February, along with his deputy, Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo. The Supreme Court has held that the certificates presented to INEC by Degi-Eremienyo were forged, and that for this reason the entire APC ticket was vitiated.
A five-person panel of the apex court, led by Justice Mary Peter-Odili, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to the APC’s candidates who had been declared winners of the 16 November 2019 governorship election in the state. The court ordered INEC instead to issue fresh certificates to the candidates of the party which came second in the vote tally, which are those of the PDP.
In its unanimous judgement the panel held that the Bayelsa State Deputy Governor-Elect, Degi-Eremienyo, presented a forged certificate to the electoral commission. The Supreme Court upheld the submission of the appellant who had approached it praying for the disqualification of the Deputy Governor-Elect, on the APC ticket, for allegedly submitting forged documents to INEC.
Reading the lead judgement, Justice Ejembi Ekwo reinstated an earlier judgement by the Federal High Court in Abuja which had disqualified Degi-Eremienyo from taking part in the governorship polls. It held that the Form CFF-001 which Degi-Eremienyo submitted to INEC for the election in the state “contained false information of fundamental nature.”
According to the judgement, since Degi-Eremienyo shared a joint ticket with the Governor-Elect, David Lyon, the disqualification invalidated their nomination by the APC. The Supreme Court subsequently ordered INEC to issue fresh Certificates of Return to the candidates of the party with the next highest votes.
Following the judgement, there was wild jubilation from the supporters of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state and beyond. After the judgement, the counsel to the defendant/respondent refused to make any comment. However, Mr. Mustapha Usman, counsel to the appellant, said that the decision of the Supreme Court was a “divine” one.
Fallouts from this judgement are still unfolding. But such a dramatic ruling favouring the PDP governorship ticket, and one based on a fine legal argument implicating the entire APC governorship ticket with the alleged misfeasance of the deputy governor-elect, will likely be interpreted as a (political if not judicial) “redress” for the surprising earlier judgement in the case of Imo State.
The ruling in the Bayelsa State case thus probably puts paid to the case in Imo State. It might be difficult to persuade the Supreme Court to review its judgement in the Imo State case having demonstrated its willingness to vacate the victory of candidates for both the All Progressives Congress and the People’s Democratic Party.
It has been a dizzying month of legal dispositions from the highest court in the land.
