Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu V. Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’adua (2009)

LAWGLOBAL HUB Lead Judgment Report

F. TABAI, J.S.C

This is an appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal dated 3rd September 2007 wherein the petition was struck out. The petition itself was dated and presented on the 22nd May 2007. The grounds of the petition without their particulars are:

GROUND 1

The election in which the 1st and 2nd Respondents were declared winners was not conducted in compliance with the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act 2006.

GROUND 2

The election did not meet the minimal requirement of Electoral democracy and the law and the Electoral Act 2006.

GROUND 3

Rudimentary requirements of fairness and equal treatment provided by the Constitution and the Electoral Act were not extended to the Petitioner and to potential voters in Anambra, Imo, Abia, Enngu and Ebonyi States.

GROUND 4

The 1st and 2nd Respondents are not qualified to contest for election to the office of President and Vice President respectively because having been employed by the people of Katsina and Bayelsa States as their Chief Public Servants or Chief Executives they did not contrary to Section 137(g) of the 1999 Constitution resign or withdraw from their offices as executive governors at all prior to the said Presidential Election.

In paragraph 10 of the petition, the Petitioner further averred that the 3rd, 4th and 5th Respondents jointly and wrongfully cleared the 1st and 2nd Respondents for the said election to the offices of President, Vice President in Nigeria.

And in paragraph 11 of the Petition, the petitioner seeks the following reliefs:

1. A DECLARATION that by reason of the arbitrary failure of the 3rd Respondent to display copies of Voters List, publish Supplementary Voters’ Register and in the manner and form commanded by the Electoral Act 2006 the said Presidential Election is null and void for non-compliance with the minimal requirements of due process sine qua non and condition precedent for the conduct of democratic election prescribed by law.
2. A DECLARATION that failure to conduct the said election at all in any place (no matter how remote or few the number of voters) is inimical to the concept and basis of equality under the law and violates the rights of the affected voters (guaranteed by the Constitution) that they be not discriminated against.
3. A DECLARATION that by the arbitrary manner the said election was conducted without regard to due process of the law in all or any part of the country, or at all, amounts to nullifying the franchise and sovereignty of the people of Nigeria as a whole.
4. A DECLARATION that the manner and form of the conduct of the said election was a usurpation of the franchise and sovereignty of the people.
5. A DECLARATION that the 1st and 2nd Respondents were not qualified for election to the office of President and Vice President respectively or at all.
6. AN ORDER nullifying and invalidating the return of Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan, the 1st and 2nd Respondents herein as President and Vice President elect respectively.
7. AN ORDER nullifying the said election and commanding the 3rd Defendant to conduct another election for the office of President of Nigeria in the manner and form prescribed by law but without the 4th Respondent as its Chairman.
8. AN ORDER of injunction commanding the 4th Respondent to cease and desist from running the affairs of the 3rd Respondent.
9. A DECLARATION that the declaration of the 1st and 2nd Respondents as winners of the said election is invalid, unconstitutional null and void.

In keeping with the requirements of the Practice Directions the petition was accompanied by a written Statement on Oath of one Dr. Paul Dike.

By a motion dated 1st August 2007 and filed on the 3rd of August 2007, the 1st and 2nd Respondents also prayed the Court below for an order dismissing and/or striking out the petition on the grounds inter alia: