Emmanuel David Ombugadu & Ors v. Sule Audu Alhaji & Ors (2024)

LAWGLOBAL HUB Lead Judgment Report – SUPREME COURT

KUDIRAT MOTONMORI OLATOKUNBO KEKERE-EKUN, JSC (Delivering the leading judgment)

The 1st appellant herein and the 1st respondent along with 11 other candidates contested the Governorship Election of Nasarawa State conducted by the 2nd respondent on 18th March, 2023.

The 1st appellant contested on the platform of the 2nd appellant, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), while the 1st respondent contested on the platform of the 3rd respondent, the All Progressives Congress (APC). At the conclusion of the election, the 1st respondent was returned as the winner with a total of 347,209 votes. He was duly returned and sworn in as the Governor of the State.

The 1st and 2nd appellants were dissatisfied with the declaration and return of the 1st respondent and filed a petition before the Governorship Election Tribunal held at Lafia on the sole ground that the 1st respondent was not duly elected by a majority of lawful votes cast.

It was the contention of the appellants that there were series of over voting in 4 polling units, inaccurate computation of results declared at the polling units in the prescribed Form EC8A to the ward collation result Form EC8B, as well as unlawful cancellation of votes.

The appellants called 22 witnesses and tendered documents. Some of the documents were tendered from the Bar. Objections were taken to the admissibility of some of the documents. Objections were also taken to the competence of some of the witnesses to testify.

The jurisdiction of the tribunal to entertain the petition was also challenged vide a motion filed by 1st respondent.

The 1st respondent called 22 witnesses and also tendered documents. It was his contention that rather than over-voting, there was exclusion of some results, which were later collated by the 3rd respondent before he was returned as the winner of the election. The 2nd and 3rd respondents tendered some documents from the Bar but did not call any witnesses. They elected to rely on evidence elicited during cross-examination.

Rulings on the several applications filed and argued at the pre-hearing session were reserved until the delivery of judgment.

At the conclusion of the trial, the tribunal in a majority judgment found in favour of the appellant. It found the allegation of over-voting to have been proved. It deducted votes accredited to parties in the units where there were complaints of over-voting and added the scores of the polling units that were alleged to have been excluded in the collation of results by the 3rd respondent.

The result of the exercise was that the tribunal nullified the return of the 1st respondent on the ground that he was not elected by the majority of lawful votes cast and declared the appellant as the winner of the election.

Not surprisingly, the 1st respondent challenged the decision at the court below. In a unanimous judgment delivered on 23rd November, 2023, the court allowed the appeal. It agreed with the 1st respondent that the failure of the tribunal to determine its motion challenging its jurisdiction before dismissing same amounted to a breach of his right to fair hearing and therefore rendered the judgment a nullity. Not being the final court, it proceeded to determine the appeal on its merit.

The majority judgment of the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal delivered on 2nd October, 2023 was set aside and particularly orders J and K therein. In its place the court made the following order:

“Affirming the election of the appellant as duly elected Governor of Nasarawa State in the 18th March, 2023 election into the office of Governor of Nasarawa State.”