Supreme Court affirms Fayose’s victory

The Supreme Court on Tuesday affirmed Ayodele Fayose as the winner and the duly elected governor of Ekiti State in the June 21, 2014 election. In a unanimous decision by the seven-man panel led by Justice John Fabiyi, the apex court upheld the earlier decisions of the Court of Appeal and the Ekiti State Governorship Election Tribunal, both of which had earlier ruled that the petition challenging Fayose’s victory lacked merit.

In the lead judgment delivered by Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, the apex court dismissed all the grounds of appeal filed by the petitioner – the All Progressives Congress – and resolved all four issues arising from the appeal against the party.

“All the issues having been resolved against the appellant, the appeal is devoid of merit and it is my order that the same be, and is hereby, dismissed in its entirety,” Justice Ngwuta ruled.

Justice Fabiyi and other members of the panel – Justices Suleiman Galadima, Olabode Rhodes-Vivour, Clara Ogunbiyi, Kumai Aka’ahs and John Okoro – all agreed with the lead judgment.

A former governor of Ekiti State and National Deputy Chairman of the APC (South), Mr. Segun Oni, was the only notable member of the party that was present when the judgment was delivered at the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared that Fayose of the Peoples Democratic Party polled 203,090 votes to defeat the then incumbent governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, of the APC who polled 120,433 votes in the election.

Dissatisfied with the results declared by the INEC, the APC had filed a petition, urging the Ekiti State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which sat in Abuja to nullify the election.

The APC was the sole petitioner in the petition excluding its candidate, Fayemi, who had earlier congratulated Fayose immediately after the results of the election were announced.

The petitioner had anchored its case on the grounds of alleged intimidation of its leaders by the military, ineligibility of Fayose to stand for the election because he was previously impeached as governor of the state in 2006 and the allegation that the PDP candidate forged his Higher National Diploma certificate presented to INEC.

The Justice Siraju-Mohammed-led tribunal had in its verdict delivered on December 19, 2014, dismissed the petition for lacking in merit.

The Justice Abdul Aboki-led five-man panel of the Court of Appeal, which also sat in Abuja, on April 15, 2015 affirmed the decision of the tribunal.

But the appellate court condemned the deployment of soldiers who allegedly harassed and intimidated APC leaders during the election.

The APC had further appealed to the Supreme Court having been dissatisfied with the Court of Appeal’s decision.

The Supreme Court held in its judgment on Tuesday that none of the grounds of appeal was proved by the appellant.

The judgment dwelt extensively on the impeachment of Fayose on October 16, 2006, describing it as “an exercise in futility” given the illegality that characterised it.

The apex court held that though impeachment was not one of the grounds of disqualification for standing for an election unders section 182(1) of the Constitution, the findings of the impeachment panel over alleged contravention of code of conduct by Fayose could not be relied on.

It added that that the impeachment panel which recommended Fayose for impeachment on October 16, 2006, was illegally and unconstitutionally constituted.

Justice Ngwuta held that the purported impeachment of Fayose was an exercise in futility as the House of Assembly illegally appointed an Acting Chief Judge who set up another impeachment panel after an earlier one had given Fayose a clean bill of health.

“The finding of guilt made against the 2nd respondent (Fayose) is not worth the paper on which it was written,” the apex court held.

Justice Ngwuta explained, “What is the status of the impeachment panel that purportedly found the 2nd respondent (Fayose) guilty of a contravention of the Code of Conduct?

“It is on record that earlier, at the request of the Ekiti State House of Assembly the Chief Judge of the state constituted a panel to investigate allegations against the 2nd respondent.

“It would appear that the House did not substantiate the allegation levelled against the 2nd respondent and so the impeachment panel gave him a clean bill of health as it were.

“This should have ended the matter in compliance with section 188(8) of the Constitution.

“Contrary to the mandatory provision, the Ekiti House of Assembly, in apparent witch hunt, procured a judge in the Ekiti State judiciary to set up a second and unconstitutional panel to investigate the 2nd respondent (Fayose) a second time. It is on record that the then Chief Justice of Nigeria wrote to the judge to say that his purported appointment as Acting Chief Judge of Ekiti State was unconstitutional and so null and void.”

On the issue of militarisation and harassment of leaders of the APC, the Supreme Court held that the Chief of Defence Staff and the Inspector-General of Police, joined as 4th and 5th defendants in the case, were not necessary parties and were rightly struck out by the tribunal.

The apex court held that the issue of deployment of soldiers in the conduct of the June 21, 2014 election was not an issue properly presented before the tribunal and the Court of Appeal and such the lower court’s (Court of Appeal’s) comment on it had no force of law.

It also held that the actions of the men and officers of the two defendants that allegedly harassed the APC leaders during the election and whose names were not mentioned could also not be answerable for by the INEC as stipulated by the Electoral Act.

The court held, “At best what the appellant dubbed crucial finding of the Court of Appeal is a mere comment which amounts to obiter dictum.

“Obiter dictum cannot be the basis for raising a ground of appeal from which can be framed. The comment is not a ratio decidendi of the decision appealed against.”

It also held that the allegation of certificate forgery had been caught by the principle of “issue estoppel” as it had been laid to rest since 2004 by the Court of Appeal’s judgment in the case of Alliance for Democracy against Fayose.

According to the apex court, the Court of Appeal had in the said judgment held that the HND certificate was genuinely earned by and awarded to Fayose.

Meanwhile, there was widespread jubilation in Ado Ekiti over Fayose’s victory at the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

The people erupted in joy immediately news filtered into town that Fayose had won. Residents trooped out in their hundreds to join other PDP’s supporters who had gathered near the Government House.

Source: The Punch