The Supreme Court yesterday affirmed the elections of eight governors including Seyi Makinde of Oyo state, Aminu Masari of Katsina state and Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna state.
The 7-man panel of apex court headed by Justice Mary Odili in separate unanimous judgments also affirmed the elections of Dave Umahi of Ebonyi state, Babajide Sanwo-olu of Lagos state, Udom Emmanuel of Akwa-Ibom state, Dapo Abiodun of Ogun state and Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa state.
Justice Ejembi Eko, who gave the summary of the lead judgment in Makinde’s appeal, overturned the November 11, 2019 judgment of the Ibadan Division of the Court of Appeal which had partly ruled in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate, Adebayo Adelabu, describing the judgment as “mainly based on perversity”. The apex court further held that its decision in Makinde’s appeal would be binding on all the other appeals filed by Adelabu and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in respect of the election.
Reading the summary of the lead judgment that affirmed Sanwo-olu’s election, Justice Paul Galinje, dismissed the two appeals challenging the election, on the ground that the appeals lacked merit.
The apex court gave similar decisions by dismissing all the appeals in the remaining cases for also lacking in merit. The lead judgements were given by Justices Odili (in the cases of Abiodun and Sule), Inyang Okoro (in the case of Masari), Musa Dattijo (in the case of Emmanuel), Amina Adamu-Augie (in the case of Umahi), and Centus Nweze (in the case of el-Rufai).
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