Bayelsa Governorship Conundrum: Reflections On Supreme Court Judgment By InibeheEffiong | Sahara Reporters I have perused the judgment of the Supreme Court of Nigeria delivered on Thursday, the 13th day of February, 2020 in the case... READ MORE:
The Supreme Court in its 24 pages lead judgment delivered by His Lordship, Ejembi Eko, JSC, made a consequential order directing the 4th Respondent, the Independent National Electoral Commission , to withdraw the Certificate of Return earlier issued to the governorship and deputy governorship candidates of the All Progressives Congress , Mr. Lyon David Pereworimin and Mr.
The apex court reinstated the finding of the trial court that “the 1st respondent having not approached the lawful authorities that issued the First Leaving Certificate in 1976 and WAEC that issued the 1984 GEC certificate the 1st Respondent, brandishing certificates that do not carry his name and using affidavits to assert his ownership of the certificate does so in error and fraudulently”. The court accordingly held that the affidavits were bereft of any probative value.
There is nothing that could have been done to salvage the case of Degi-Eremienyo and the APC. Their case was not only bad; it was incurably bad. “ In any election to which the foregoing provisions of this part of this Chapter relate, a candidate for the office of Governor of a State shall not be deemed to have been validly nominated for such office unless he nominates another candidate as his associate for his running for the office of Governor, who is to occupy the office of Deputy Governor; and that candidate shall be deemed to have been duly elected to the office of Deputy Governor if the candidate who nominated him is duly elected...
The case under reference is reported as BALEWA V. MUAZU 5 NWLR Page 636. In that case, the appellant Alhaji Adamu Tafawa Balewa who was the candidate of the then All People’s Party challenged the return of the PDP candidate Alhaji Ahmed Adamu Muazu and his running mate, Alhaji Kaulaha Aliyu in the Bauchi State Governorship election conducted on the 9th of January, 1999 on the ground that his running mate was disqualified on grounds of dismissal from the civil service.
“To do otherwise and accede to the request of the applicant to declare him as elected will certainly amount to an imposition on the electorate. To do that will negate all the known principles of democracy. Democracy demands that any person wishing to rule must get the mandate of the people. There are no two ways about it. “
Fifth, while Muazu’s case was a post-election matter, the Bayelsa case was a pre-election matter which arose before the November 2019 Bayelsa election. Pre-election cases usually raises issues affecting the propriety of a candidate’s or political party’s participation in an election. I align myself with those who contend that the jurisprudence of wasted votes undermines the will of the people. However, that is an academic argument. The law today is firmly established in favour of declaring votes cast in favour of candidates and parties whose disqualification has been judicially established as wasted votes. There is no academic argument that can overturn this trite position of the Supreme Court.
As history has shown, Nigerian politicians prefer to forge educational certificates in their desperation to prove their over-qualification, than rely on their duly earned elementary school certificates. This validation seeking and duplicitous proclivity, has become the albatross and nemesis of forgery prone candidates like Mr. Degi-Eremienyo.
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