TARABA ELECTION: Supreme Court Upholds Gov Ishaku's Election

Darius Ishaku, Taraba State Governor

THE Supreme Court has upheld the election of Taraba State governor, Darius Ishaku of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

In unanimous decision of a 7-man panel of the bench with a lead verdict delivered by Justice Rhodes Vivour, the court dismissed the suit filed by Senator Aisha Alhassan of the All Progressive Congress, APC for lack of merit and fixed February 22 2016 for the ratio decidendi (reasons for the decision).

The apex court affirmed that the judgment of the Court of Appeal was consistent with the electoral Acts of the federation and ipso facto declared Nyako as validly elected as governor of the state for a term of four years as provided by Section 180 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended.

"I am of the firm view that there is no merit in this appeal and it is hereby dismissed. The judgment of the Court of Appeal is affirmed and the election of governor Darius Ishaku is hereby upheld," Justice Rhodes-Vivour stated.

It would be recalled that the Election Tribunal had earlier nullified the election and declared the candidate of APC, Alhassan as validly elected as the governor of the state based on the election conducted on April 11, 2015 by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

Following the verdict, the governor in conjunction with his party, PDP appealed the judgment and set aside the judgment of the Election Tribunal.  Opposing the appellate verdict, the APC candidate proceeded to the Supreme Court to challenge the ruling of the Court of Appeal but unfortunately still met the brick wall.

Nonetheless, it is pertinent to note that the appellate court set aside the judgment of the ruling on account that the tribunal relied on the pre-election matters which was exclusively the concerns of the political parties as long as the time of substitution of party candidates have not elapsed.

APC, candidate had challenged the election of the PDP candidate, Nyako on the ground of heis emergence as the candidate of the party in the State.

Dismissing the position of the Tribunal, the court  stated that "it is clearly a pre-election matter which no court has jurisdiction to entertain" and ruled that the APC candidate has no locus standi to question a primary in which she was not a stakeholder in.    

Emphatically, it referenced Section 87(9) of the Electoral Act which provides that only persons who participated in a primary can competently challenge its outcomes in the court of law.

Consequently, the appellate court set aside the verdict of the Election Tribunal on the ground that it relied on matters which it lacked jurisdiction to entertain in arriving at the rulings against the governor Ishaku.