Peoples Democratic Party V. Hon. Ned Munir Nwoko & Ors (2012)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

MOHAMMED BABA IDRIS, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment)

By an Originating Summons filed on the 11th of December, 2018 before the Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, the 1st Respondent who was Plaintiff at the trial Court sought for the determination of the following questions and sought the reliefs set out hereunder:

a) Whether the 1st Defendant, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) who supervised and monitored the Primary Election of the 2nd Defendant and knows that the Plaintiff won the majority of valid and lawful votes cast at the Primary Election of the 2nd Defendant can lawfully accept, display and/or publish the name of the 3rd Defendant as the candidate of the 2nd Defendant for the Delta North Senatorial District Election, when the 3rd Defendant lost the election.

b) Whether by the mandatory provisions of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), the 1st Defendant (INEC) is not bound to publish only the name of the Plaintiff who won the Primary Election of the 2nd Defendant in respect of the Delta North Senatorial District in respect of the 2019 General Election.

c) Whether the continued display of

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the name of the 3rd Defendant by the 1st Defendant as the candidate of the 2nd Defendant for the Delta North Senatorial District in respect of the 2019 General Elections instead of the name of the Plaintiff does not constitute a violation of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Electoral Act, the Guidelines of the 2nd Defendant and the vested right of the Plaintiff as the valid candidate for the said election.

RELIEFS SOUGHT

1. A declaration that the Plaintiff having contested and won the Primary Election of the 2nd Defendant (PDP) in respect of the Delta North Senatorial District for the 2019 General Election is the only person whose name should be published as the candidate of the 2nd Defendant (PDP) in respect of the Delta North Senatorial District,
2. A declaration that the action of the 1st Defendant in displaying and/or publishing the 3rd Defendant who contested and lost the Primary Election of the Defendant in respect of the Delta North Senatorial District is unconstitutional, null, void and of no effect in law.
3. An order directing the 1st Defendant to immediately publish the name of the Plaintiff who won the

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Primary Election of the 2nd Defendant (PDP) in respect of the Senatorial Election slated for 2019 as the authentic candidate of the 2nd Defendant for Delta North Senatorial Election.

4. An Order of perpetual injunction restraining the 3rd Defendant from parading himself as the PDP candidate for the Delta North Senatorial Election scheduled to hold in 2019.

It was the 1st Respondent’s case at the trial Court that he was an aspirant for the Delta North Senatorial District. Having been screened and cleared by the Appellant, he and other aspirants contested for the Delta North Senatorial District Primary Election held on the 2nd of October, 2018. According to the 1st Respondent, he scored the highest number of valid votes cast at the said primary election but the Appellant’s Electoral Committee failed to comply with the Guidelines for the primary election as it prevented duly elected delegates from having access to delegate tags and gave them to persons other than the accredited delegates for the purpose of helping the 3rd Respondent win the primary election fraudulently.

The 1st Respondent had stated that after the election and counting of votes,

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it was clear that he scored the highest votes but the 3rd Respondent and his hired thugs caused chaos, thus, leading to the recording of false results. Furthermore, it was argued that even the Appellant did not have accurate records of what happened during the primary election and two different results with different serial numbers were produced by the Appellant. It was then stated that it was obvious that the Appellant was trying to favour the 3rd Respondent and have him declared as winner.