The Supreme Court has affirmed the victory of Governor Dapo Abiodun of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), at the March 18 governorship election in Ogun State.
The Apex Court upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal, Abuja which dismissed the appeal filed by by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Ladi Adebutu, seeking the nullification of the re-election of Governor Abiodun.
Delivering the Lead Judgement, Justice Tijani Abubakar dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit
The Supreme Court has affirmed the Victory of Uba Sani of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the March 18 governorship election in Kaduna state.
The Apex Court upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal, Abuja which set aside the decision of the Kaduna governorship election tribunal sacking Sani and declaring the governorship election in the state as inconclusive.
Delivering the Lead Judgement, Justice Tijani Abubakar dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit.
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The Supreme Court has affirmed the election of Nasir Idris of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the Governor of Kebbi State.
The Apex Court upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal, Abuja dismissing the appel filed by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Aminu Bande challenging the victory of at the March 18 governorship election.
Delivering the Lead Judgement, Justice Abba Aji dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit
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The Supreme Court on Friday, dismissed an appeal by Jibrin Barde of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP)challenging the election of Governor Muhammad Yahaya of Gombe state.
The Apex court lead judgment read
by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, unanimously dismissed an appeal by Barde for want of merit, incompetent and liable to be dismissed.
Consequently, the apex court has affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, which had in November, 2023, upheld the election of Yahaya as Governor of Gombe State.
The appellate court had upheld Yahaya’s election after dismissing two separate appeals challenging his declaration as winner of the March 18, governorship election in the state.
A 5-man panel of the Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by David Ombugadu of the Peoples Democratic Party seeking to upturn the electoral victory of Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State.
Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission had declared Sule as winner of the election with 347,209 votes to beat his closest challenger, Ombugadu, who polled 283,016 votes.
Not happy with the results declared by INEC, Ombugadu and his party, the PDP, filed a petition at the Nasarawa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal to challenge the outcome of the polls.
On October 2, 2023, a 3-man panel of the election petition tribunal led by Justice Ezekiel Ajayi, in a split decision of two-to-one, declared Ombugadu, the validly elected governor of Nasarawa State.
However, the Court of Appeal in Abuja, affirmed the election of Abdullahi Sule as Nasarawa State governor, after overturning the earlier decision of the election petition tribunal that removed him from office.
Delivering judgement on the appeal filed by Sule, a three-member panel of the appeal court held that the Nasarawa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal was wrong to have declared David Ombugadu, as the winner of the 18 March election.
Not relenting, Ombugadu appealed at the apex court.
But in a lead judgment, Justice Kudirat Kekere Ekun dismissed Ombugadu’s appeal for being ‘devoid of merit, vexatious and incompetent.
The panel unanimously held that all the sister appeals abide by the instant judgment.
More so, the panel ordered parties to bear their respective costs.
Recall that Governor Sule was initially declared the winner of the polls by INEC.
But Ombugadu challenged the election outcome at the tribunal, arguing that he won the majority of valid votes during the contest.
In a split decision of the tribunal on October 2, two members, forming the majority, declared Ombugadu the winner of the election, while the minority opinion of the only other member affirmed Sule’s victory.
Sule subsequently appealed against the majority decision of the tribunal, and won.
The supreme court, Friday, dismissed judgments on three separate appeals seeking to nullify the election of Sheriff Oborevwori as Delta state governor.
The court held that the appeals instituted by the aggrieved candidates, including Ovie Omo-Agege, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ken Pela of the Labour Party (LP) and Kenneth Gbagi of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), is incompetent and lacks merit.
In separate judgements, delivered by a five-man panel of the Justices read by Justice Inyang Okoro, the Apex court held that the appallants failed to prove that the court below erred in it’s judgement by affirming the election that declared Sheriff Oborevori winner of the March 18 election in the state.
The court held that haven considered the arguments of the Counsels, the extent laws and evidences therein as far as the authorities cited, it concluded that appeal has no singular merit.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Oborevwori, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as the winner of the governorship election held on March 18.
Aggrieved by the outcome of the poll, other candidates, including Ovie Omo-Agege, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ken Pela of the Labour Party (LP) and Kenneth Gbagi of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), filed separate petitions before the governorship tribunal.
However, all the appeals were dismissed by the tribunal.
The court of appeal also affirmed Oborevwori’s election.
At the supreme court session on Tuesday, the appellants, through their respective counsels, faulted the verdicts of the two lower courts.
Omo-Agege contended that the election was not conducted in substantial compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act.
He told the apex court that the results of the governorship election were not properly recorded at some polling units, adding that the forms that contained some of the recorded results did not have serial numbers.
Gbagi on the other hand prayed the court to declare that Oborevwori was not eligible to contest the election.
Pela, the LP candidate, prayed the supreme court to nullify the entire election and order a fresh one.
After listening to all parties, a five-member panel of the court said a date for judgment would be communicated.
The Supreme Court will today determine the fate of nine governors whose victory in the governorship election held on March 18, 2023, are being challenged.
The states that the apex court has heard cases that were lodged by aggrieved candidates and reserved its judgement, are Delta, Rivers, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Taraba, Sokoto, Gombe, Kaduna and Ogun.
A top official at the Supreme Court who pleaded not to be mentioned, told Vanguard that judgement in some of the cases were brought forward to Friday after the court vacated the whole of next week to allow its overworked justices to rest.
While Justice Inyang Okoro will head the panel that will decide some of the appeals, the other panel will be led by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun.
Even though all the cases were heard by a five-member panel, however, last Friday when the apex court delivered marathon judgements on governorship election appeals from eight states of the federation, eight Justices sat for the proceedings.
A panel of the court led by Justice Kekere-Ekun had on Thursday, announced that it would on Friday, deliver judgement on the appeal that is seeking to nullify the election of Governor Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State.
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Mohammed Barde, are praying the apex court to set aside the concurrent verdict of the Court of Appeal and the Gombe State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which dismissed the case they filed to challenge the declaration of governor Yahaya of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as the winner of the gubernatorial contest.
The panel okayed the matter for judgement, after all the parties adopted their briefs of argument.
The court, however, dismissed another appeal that was filed against governor Yahaya’s election by the candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Nafiu Bala.
The Appellant withdrew the matter after the apex court panel drew his attention to the fact that his case was premised on pre-election issues.
Similarly, the court reserved its judgement on Kaduna state governorship election dispute after the parties also adopted their arguments.
The PDP and its candidate, Mohammed Ashiru, are praying the court to sack Governor Uba Sani, who won his election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had declared that governor Sani garnered a total of 730, 001 votes to defeat the PDP candidate, Ashiru, who polled 719, 196 votes.
However, dissatisfied with the result of the election, the PDP and its candidate approached the tribunal to challenge it.
The petitioners alleged that governor Uba was not duly elected by majority of valid votes cast in the election, adding that the election was invalid by reason of corrupt practices and non compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.
Fresh troubles appear to be in the offing for former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN, Godwin Ifeanyi Emefiele as the Federal Government again amended the charges against him on offences allegedly committed while in office.
The earlier charges have been increased from six to 20, bordering on forgery, conferring of corrupt advantage, and criminal breach of trust among others.
The Federal Government had initially filed 19 charges against the former CBN governor bordering on N6.9bn procurement fraud but pruned it down to six to the tune of N1.2bn which he is currently standing trial on.
In the amended charge, Emefiele was accused of obtaining the sum of $6.2m by pretence by falsely representing the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
The government said the offence was contrary to section 1(1) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006, and punishable under section 1(3) of the same Act.
The charge read, “That you, Godwin Ifeanyi Emefiele male, adult, and Odoh, Eric Ocheme (Still at large) on or about the 8th day of February 2023 in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court knowingly obtained by false pretence, the sum of Six Million, Two Hundred and Thirty Thousand United State Dollar ($6,230,000.00) by falsely representing that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation vide a letter dated 26th January, 2023 with Ref No. SGF.43/L.01/201 requested the Central Bank of Nigeria to provide a contingent logistic advance in the sum of $6,230,000.00 “in line with Mr. President’s directive” which representation you knew to be false and you thereby committed an offence.”
He was also accused of conniving with one Eric Ocheme who has been at large to commit forgery.
The government said the offence was contrary to section 96 (1) and punishable under section 364 of the Penal Code Law, Cap 89 Laws Federation, 1990.
It read, “That you, Godwin Ifeanyi Emefiele male, adult, and Odoh, Eric Ocheme (Still at large) sometime in January 2023 in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court agreed amongst yourselves to cause to be done an illegal act to wit: forgery of a document titled: RE: PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE ON FOREIGN ELECTION OBSERVER MISSIONS dated 26 January 2023 with Ref No. SGF.43/L.01/201 and you thereby committed an offence.”
Emefiele was also accused of conferring corrupt advantage on his wife Omoile Margret and Brother In-law Omoile Macombo by awarding a contract for the renovation of a portion of the CBN Governor’s residence in Lagos to the tune of N99.8m.
The government said the offence was contrary to Section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000.
The charge read, “That you, Godwin Ifeanyi Emefiele, male, adult, sometime in March 2020 within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did use your position as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria to confer a corrupt advantage on your wife, Omoile Margret, and brother-in-law Omoile Macombo by awarding a contract for the external renovation of the CBN Governor’s Residence lying, being and situate at No. 2 Glover Road, Ikoyi, Lagos in the sum of 99,826,452.47 to Messrs. Architekon Nigeria Limited, a company wherein the duo are directors and majority shareholders and you thereby committed an offence. ”
Emefiele’s counsel, Mathew Bukka, SAN, pleaded with the court for time, adding that the amended charge was served on them on Wednesday.
The trial judge, Justice Hamza Muazu, adjourned the matter till Friday January 19, for fresh plea of Emefiele to be taken in the new charges.
Justice Hamza Muazu of the Federal Capital Territory High Court has granted the immediate past Governor of the Central Bank, Godwin Emefiele’s request to travel out of the FCT.
The court said Emefiele must, however, remain in the country.
On his bail terms, he was restricted to the FCT.
Emefiele, through his lawyer, Mathew Bukka, SAN, had requested a variation of the terms.
The Counsel of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, did not object.
He told the court to ensure that Emefiele wrote an undertaking that he would remain in the country if his plea was granted.
The charge against the former governor of the CBN was also amended to 20 from 6.
The amended charges against Emefiele now includes criminal breach of trust, forgery, conspiracy to commit forgery, procurement fraud and conspiracy to commit felony.
Jersey’s Royal Court has ruled in favour of returning stolen assets valued at £6.9 million ($8.9 million) to Nigeria.
The decision comes after Jersey’s Attorney General issued a forfeiture notice in November, asserting that the funds, deposited in a Jersey bank account, were likely misappropriated by Nigerian government officials in 2014.
The illicit transfer of funds was reportedly disguised as government-sanctioned contracts for arms purchases during Boko Haram incursions in Nigeria between 2009 and 2015.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was in power between 2010 and 2015. It will also be recalled that a lot of controversy had surrounded the purchase of weapons in the fight against insurgency with the then National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki, being accused of diverting funds meant for security equipment.
Also in late 2014, a private jet belonging to the-then President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, was arrested in South Africa with $10m cash, which was allegedly meant for the purchase of military weapons.
The Jersey court found that most of the funds, initially intended for legitimate arms deals, had been diverted through foreign bank accounts and shell companies linked to the former ruling party in Nigeria.
Jersey’s Attorney General, Mark Temple KC, noted the collaboration between Jersey and the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the recovery process.
Temple stressed the effectiveness of the 2018 Forfeiture Law in combating corruption and restoring funds to victims of crime. Plans are underway to negotiate an asset return agreement with the Nigerian government.
He said: “This case again demonstrates the effectiveness of the 2018 Forfeiture Law in recovering the proceeds of corruption and restoring that money to victims of crime.
“I now intend to negotiate an asset return agreement with the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”