Supreme Court affirms Nyako’s victory in Adamawa

Nnamdi Felix / Abuja

Nigeria’s Supreme Court on Tuesday in Abuja affirmed the victory of Adamawa state Governor Murtala Nyako of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, at the last gubernatorial election conducted in the state by the Independent National Election Commission, INEC.

In a unanimous decision, a 7 man panel of the apex court dismissed the appeal brought before it by the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, and its governorship
candidate, Mr. Markus Gundiri challenging the decision of the state’s Governorship and Legislative Election Petitions Tribunal as well as that of the Court of Appeal both of which had earlier upheld the victory of Governor Murtala Nyako at the polls.

The ACN and it’s candidate had approached the court seeking for the nullification of Nyako’s election on the
grounds of substantial non compliance to the Electoral Act and other criminal allegations against the governor, the state’s resident electoral commissioner as well as the national electoral body,INEC.

In the apex court’s judgment which was read by Justice Clara Ogunbiyi, the court held that the ACN failed to substantially prove the civil and criminal allegations raised against the respondents. It also held that the onus lies on the appellants to prove their allegations which they failed to discharge.

The court also held that the request by ACN that the court help it severe the criminal allegations contained in the appeal from the civil allegations was strange and could not be granted as doing so would amount to helping a party in a suit to advance its case. The apex court went on to hold that Mr. Markus Gundiri and his party’s appeal is devoid of merits and thereafter dismissed it. No order was however made as to cost of litigation.

The earlier courts had dismissed the petition of ACN and its candidate on similar ground of having failed to adduce
enough evidences to prove their allegation that the elections was substantially marred by corruption, election malpractices, and violence.