Except in two instances where the Supreme Court intervened, the deadline for the arbitration of petitions from the recent governorship elections ended this week. But the pursuit for justice for many defeated candidates progresses

IT was a narrow escape for Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State last weekend as the State Gubernatorial Election Petition Tribunal upheld his election, but just by the skin of his teeth.

Governor Uduaghan would undoubtedly have heaved a big sigh of relief given that he has spent most of his five years in office in and out of the courts or on the campaign arena.

How far that has distracted him from the issues of governance and posting a legacy is now the increasing subject of debate among the Governor’s allies and even his foes.

“My appeal is that Deltans should reunite, I am also aggrieved, I am the one bearing the brunt of the mischief by these people,” the Governor said emotively during an interaction with newsmen just before the State Election tribunal delivered its judgment.

Governor Usman Dakingari of Kebbi State was, however, not so lucky as his election on April 26, 2011 for a second term was annulled by the state governorship election tribunal.

Jega

However, for many other Governors the Monday deadline for the arbitration of the election petitions by the state gubernatorial panels passed off almost smoothly. In some cases as in Oyo State, the judgment of the election panel was marked in typical Ibadan style owambe celebration. Preparations for the owambe party preceded the judgment giving concern to some that the outcome of the tribunal judgment had been predicted.

Tribunal judgments

Others who were in joyous mood after the tribunal judgments were Governors Sullivan Chime of Enugu, Rochas Okorocha of Imo, Umaru Al‘Makura of Nasarawa, Ahmed Abdulfatah of Kwara, Isa Yuguda of Bauchi, Babangida Aliyu of Niger, Dr. Rabiu Kwakwanso of Kano among others.

It was, however, a different kettle of fish for Governors Gabriel Suswam of Benue and Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom as the Supreme Court last Monday ordered the tribunals in the two states to reconsider the petitions filed by the defeated Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN gubernatorial candidates in the two states.

The order of the Supreme Court panel headed by the Chief Justice, Justice Dahiru Musdapher was on the premise that the Appeal Court panels that considered the two cases erred in law by dismissing the petitions of the ACN candidates on technicalities.

“It is too early for me to start losing my head. What is the difference between letter and motion ex-parte? Everybody is watching us, I’m begging in the name of justice, matters should be decided on their merit and not technicalities.

“Our responsibility to whoever comes to us is to do justice without technicalities. Where is justice after the tribunal itself had granted pre-hearing notices and the same tribunal fixed a date for hearing and days after, somebody now brought an application to dismiss the matter, where is justice in that situation?

Justice Dahiru Musdapher

“They just want to take an easy way out to finish this matter. We will say no to it. Democracy is the number of the people that voted for A or B, let justice be done.”

In giving his order for a fresh trial the CJN seemingly waived as it were Section 134 (2) of the Electoral Act which stipulates a deadline of six months for the arbitration of election petitions by the tribunals. Ironically, the two states involved are hotly contested by the ACN and are states the party has openly claimed it was robbed of victory by the PDP.

The Dakingari case in Kebbi was especially remarkable given that the chief umpire of the election, Prof Attahiru Jega is from Kebbi State. In nullifying the election, the tribunal affirmed that the failure of the Independent National Election Tribunal to provide the ballot papers with which it conducted the election showed that there was hanky-panky in the election of the Governor.

The judgment was something that the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC which filed the petition against Dakingari’s election was able to latch to in its continuing campaign to compel INEC to provide the ballot papers it claims were fraudulently used to enthrone Dr. Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP as President.

“This is a personal message to Professor Attahiru Jega, (an indigene of Kebbi State), who as the Chief electoral umpire has failed to explain why vital electoral materials used for the election cannot be produced in court for the cause of establishing the truth,” the party’s national publicity secretary, Engr. Rotimi Fashakin said in a statement.

“It was a courageous, transparent ruling, which is devoid of bias. It aptly captured the paradigm of a citadel of Justice where rulings are based on the facts presented and not over-reliance on excessive legalism and noxious technicalities.

Remarkably, a number of the defeated petitioners are already angling to appeal the decisions of the tribunals.

Great Ogboru the candidate of the Democratic Peoples Party, DPP in Delta State is already angling to pursue an appeal against the declaration by the tribunal that Udugahan won the election by 11,957 votes. It is a move that is bound to further irritate supporters of Governor Uduaghan who have complained about the distractions the court cases have contributed to governance in the state.

The All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP which lost in Kano is equally seeking an appeal against the decision of the tribunal in the state to uphold the election of Governor Kwankwanso.

Hashim Hotoro chairman of the ANPP in Kano said the decision was based on what he claimed was the good case the party had against the PDP.

“We have a good case and the people are with us and our religion further teaches us to seek and demand for justice all the time and if Kwankwaso failed to do same in 2003, it means he had nothing to support his case”.

Remarkably, the Electoral Act gives a deadline of 90 days within the declaration of the tribunal verdicts for the appeals to be decided.