Gov. Ikpeazu
Gov. Udom Emmanuel
Nigeria’s Supreme Court of Nigeria has declared Dr Okezie Victor Ikpeazu winner of the Abia 2015 governorship contest. The court also declared Governor Udom Emmauel of Akwa Ibom State as winner of the gubernatorial election he contested against Mr Umana Umana of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The seven-man panel led by the Chief Justice of the Federation said it will give the reason for declaring Dr Ikpeazu winner on February 15, 2016.
The governorship election in Abia State held on April 11, 2015 was declared inconclusive by the Returning Officer, Prof. Benjamin Ozurumba, and a supplementary election scheduled in some polling units across nine local government areas in the state, after which Prof. Ozurumba declared Ikpeazu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winner of the contest.
His main rival, Dr. Alex Otti of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and his party flatly rejected the outcome on the grounds that results from the three local governments of Isiala Ngwa North, Obingwa and Osisioma ought not to have been accepted as valid.
Results from the three councils became a subject of dispute when, based on reports of alleged violence and irregularities from some observers, the Returning Officer announced their cancellation.
But he was to reverse himself after the then Governor Theodore Orji, had visited the state headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to impress it on the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Prof Selina Oko, that the Returning Officer had no such powers to cancel election results.
Otti took his rejection of the polls to the Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Umuahia. In its ruling on November 3, 2015, the tribunal held that Otti failed to prove allegations of over-voting, violence and other malpractices in the three local governments and dismissed his petition accordingly while affirming Ikpeazu’s victory.
Unimpressed by the verdict, Otti turned to the Appeal Court, Owerri Division. The five-man panel which looked into his appeal, virtually agreed with all his prayers and expunged votes recorded from the three local governments and declared him winner of the Abia guber poll, saying that he scored the majority of lawful votes cast in the election. The Appeal Court verdict was delivered on December 31, 2015. It was a New Year gift that Ikpeazu could not stomach and he promptly rushed to the Supreme Court to reclaim his mandate.
In the case of Akwa Ibom, the apex court in a ruling delivered same day (Wednesday) dismissed Umana’s legal challenge, declaring Emmanuel, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as the validly elected governor of the state.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja had on December 18, 2015 nullified the Akwa Ibom State governorship election held on April 11, 2015 and won by Emmanuel. Nearly two months earlier the Akwa Ibom Governorship Election Petition Tribunal had nullified elections in 18 local governments and ordered a re-run.
After the judgement of the tribunal headed by Justice Sadiq Umar, on October 21, APC and its Umana filed an appeal at the appellate court in Abuja, challenging the judgment of the tribunal. They faulted the tribunal’s judgment on grounds of “miscarriage of justice and turning upside-down, the head of the natural justice.”
The two appellants asked the appellate court to set aside the judgment of the tribunal in relation to the validation of election results in 13 local government areas of the state.
According to them, by nullifying elections in 18 out of 31 local government areas, Section 179(2)(b) of the Nigerian Constitution, which required that a candidate vying for the office of the governor would be declared winner if he gets not less than one quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of the local government areas, has been breached.
They claimed that the tribunal erred in not nullifying the election of Governor Emmanuel in its entirety since he did not meet the mandatory number needed to retain his seat – an argument which was upheld by the appellate court.
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