History can be said to have been made in Nigeria as on Saturday November 7, 2015 Senator Aisha Jummai Alhassan was declared winner of the Governorship elections held in Taraba State of Nigeria on April 11 2015, by the the Taraba State Governorship Elections Tribunal sitting in Abuja.
As the Petitioner who contested the Gubernatorial Elections, Senator Aisha Alhassan, was declared as the rightful winner of the Governorship elections over the PDP candidate Mr. Darius Ishaku who had earlier been declared as winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and had since been sworn in as Governor of Taraba state since May 29, 2015.
According to our source, the details and the rationale for the decisions arrived at by the judgement is predicated on the following;
Section 138 of the Electoral Act (2010) as amended stipulates 4 grounds upon which a valid election petition can be founded upon as follows:
(1) Whether the election was marred by substantial non compliance or corrupt practices.
(2) whether the petitioner was unlawfully excluded.
(3) whether the petitioner scored the highest number of lawful and valid votes cast at the election.
(4) Whether the candidate that won the election was qualified to contest the said election.
(1) Whether the election was marred by substantial non compliance or corrupt practices.
(2) whether the petitioner was unlawfully excluded.
(3) whether the petitioner scored the highest number of lawful and valid votes cast at the election.
(4) Whether the candidate that won the election was qualified to contest the said election.
It is clear that the election petition in Taraba state was decided on the 4th ground aforementioned. The law has gone ahead to stipulate what amounts to non qualification of a candidate. The candidate must posses at least a WASC. The candidate must not have been convicted for fraud by any court of competent jurisdiction. The candidate must be a Nigerian citizen. The candidate must be up to the required age for election into the office he or she is contesting for. The candidate must have been duly sponsored by a political party.This last point appears to be the gravamen in the decision of the Tribunal.
The tribunal held specifically that the Governorship primaries purportedly conducted by the PDP in the State was done in violation of Section 78(b) (1) & (2) of the Electoral Act which guides parties nominations to the position of Governorship candidate. It held that; contrary to the provision of the section, PDP conducted the purported primaries at it's National Secretariat at Wadata Plaza, Abuja with no clear delegation from the local government areas from Taraba State.
"The tribunal sustained the testimony of INEC head of election monitoring that the commission was not aware of any primaries in line with the provision of the electoral Act which produced Mr. Darius Ishaku as the PDP Governorship candidate and flag bearer".
"Section 78(b) (1) (2) of the Electoral Act states: in the case of nomination to the position of Governorship candidate,a political party shall where they intend to sponsor candidates:
(i) hold special congress in each of the local Government Areas of the States with delegates voting for each of the aspirants at the congress to be held in designated centers on specified dates.
(ii) the aspirant with the highest number of vote at the end of the voting shall be forwarded to the commission as the candidate of the party for the particular state."
(i) hold special congress in each of the local Government Areas of the States with delegates voting for each of the aspirants at the congress to be held in designated centers on specified dates.
(ii) the aspirant with the highest number of vote at the end of the voting shall be forwarded to the commission as the candidate of the party for the particular state."
"The tribunal held that the defence by the PDP that, the primaries were shifted to Abuja because of security challenges in the state was rejected by the tribunal. It sustained the evidence of the INEC official that there was no primaries election in the state and the emergence of Mr. Ishaku through the purported primaries in Abuja was after the statutory stipulated time for party primaries had elapsed."
"It held that since Mr. Ishaku was not duly sponsored by the PDP, the party had no candidate in the Governorship election in the eyes of the law. The tribunal therefore voided the votes of the PDP and Mr. Ishaku in the Gubernatorial elections of Taraba State saying; "it is a waste and declared the APC and it's candidate, which came second, as the valid winner of the elections."
It seems wrong to compare this case with the locus classicus of AMAECHI v. INEC (2008) 5 NWLR (pt. 1080) p.227. Whereas the issue in Amaechi's case was on who was the lawful and rightful candidate of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) as between Mr. Celestine Omehia and Mr. Rotimi Amaechi. The question in the Taraba's case is whether the PDP participated at all in the election in the eyes of the law.
By the provision of Section 140 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), where an Election Tribunal or court determines that a candidate who obtained the highest votes was not qualified to contest the election, it shall not declare the candidate with the highest votes as elected, but it shall order for fresh election. On the other hand, where the Tribunal or court determines that the candidate who was returned as elected did not score the majority of votes at the election, it shall declare the candidate with the highest valid votes as elected.
On the issue of whether the judgement is determined on the basis of a pre-election matter, the law is now settled that qualification/disqualification is both a pre-election and post-election matter with concurrent jurisdiction exercisable by both the Election Tribunal and the High Court. The process of nomination of a candidate touches on qualification of the candidate and qualification is on the four grounds recognizable by Section 138 of the Electoral Act earlier on given.That these four grounds may be questioned at the tribunal. See recent cases of; GWEDE v. INEC (2015) 242 LRCN 138 and; AKPAMGBO-OKADIGBO v. CHIDI (No. 2) (2015) 10 NWLR (pt. 1466) 124.
This Means that the law has endorsed the hybrid status of qualification/ disqualification of a candidate in an election. Therefore, if that be the case, it will be wrong for anyone to say that how PDP nominated her candidate, does not concern the tribunal or the petitioner or the APC her party.
That the main issue in the case is beyond the qualification of the PDP Candidate, Mr. Darius Ishaku, but whether the PDP as a political party can be said to have participated in the April 2015 Gubernatorial election in the eyes of the law.That is the crux of the matter.
Although, the Supreme court held in Amaechi's Case that it is a political party that it voted for in an election and not the candidate, the law is explicit that a party cannot participate in an election without validly nominating a candidate. The fact that the purported PDP primary election was held outside the stipulated time as stated by the INEC staff whose testimony was accepted by the Tribunal is conclusive of the fact that the PDP never validly nominated a candidate as required by law. In essence, the PDP did not participate in the election.
Having regard to Section 143 of the Electoral Act, Mr. Darius Ishaku will vacate the office as Governor of Taraba State for the swearing in of Mrs. Aisha Alhassan of the APC except he appeals against the decision of the tribunal within 21 days of the delivery of the judgement.
It is therefore presumed that the Tribunal's Consequential Order declaring Mrs. Alhassan of the APC as the winner of the election is plausible, inviolable and in obedience to the provision of Section 140 of the Electoral Act given that she scored the majority of valid votes at the elections.
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