Headlines
Supreme Court Affirms Election of Ikpeazu, Okowa, Ishaku, Bello
The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the elections of governors of four states across the federation.
The governors are Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, Darius Ishaku of Taraba State, Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State and Abubakar Bello of Niger State.
The seven-member panel of the Supreme Court in its series of hearings and judgments delivered within six hours reaffirmed verdicts earlier given at the lower court.
In all, the apex court’s decision saw the four incumbent governors emerging victorious over the various election petitions filed against them.
Abia
The Supreme Court affirmed the election of Mr Ikpeazu as Governor of Abia State.
Justice Paul Galinje, a member of the seven-member panel, who read the unanimous judgment, held that the appellant’s reliance solely on the smart card readers in proving the alleged over-voting was fatal to their case.
Mr Galinje also held that the law is clear that the petitioner must tender the voter’s register, and should relate the document to the specific area where the elections were affected.
According to Mr Galinje, the card reader print out tendered by the appellants at the tribunal is not part of the constitution or electoral act which determines the conditions for over-voting.
The judge said that the appellants failed to lead credible evidence in proving their case.
The candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Alex Otti, and his party had approached the apex court to set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal which upheld the election of Mr Ikpeazu.
They had in their appeal argued by their lawyer, Lateef Fagbemi, asked the apex court to nullify the election of Mr Ikpeazu on grounds of over-voting and noncompliance with the electoral laws.
Mr Fagbemi in his argument urged the court to allow the appeal and set aside the judgment of the lower court and declare Mr Otti as the lawful winner of the March 9 governorship election in Abia State or in the alternative order a fresh election.
In their separate replies, the respondents urged the court to dismiss the appeal for lacking in merit.
The lawyer to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) adopted his brief of argument and urged the apex court to dismiss the appeal. The lawyer to Mr Ikpeazu and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Wole Olanipekun and Levy Uzoukwu, respectively told the court that the case of the appellants lacked merit because it was hinged on alleged over-voting occasioned by non-use of the card reader which the apex court has held cannot dethrone the manual accreditation of voters.
Delivering the judgment on Wednesday, Mr Galinje held that the appeal lacked merit and accordingly dismissed it.
The Court of Appeal in Owerri, the Imo State capital, headed by Justice R. A. Adah, had struck out the appeal filed by Mr Otti, and validated Mr Ikpeazu’s victory.
A three-member panel of the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Umuahia, the Abia State capital, chaired by A.L. Ogumoye, had also earlier dismissed the petition
The tribunal ruled that the petitioner failed to prove the case of over-voting and noncompliance to the INEC election guideline and the electoral act.
Mr Otti had asked the tribunal to cancel the results of elections in 15 out of the17 local government areas in Abia State.
He claimed that the respondents, PDP and Mr Ikpeazu, perpetrated excessive malpractice in those local governments.
Not satisfied with the tribunal judgment which threw out his the petition, Mr Otti approached the appellate court asking it to quash the tribunal ruling and uphold the reliefs he (Otti) sought in court.
Delta
In a similar decision, the apex court also ruled against an appeal by Great Ogboru of the All Progressive Congress (APC) who had challenged the election of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa on grounds that the election was marred by vote-buying.
Respondents in the appeal are Mr Okowa, PDP and INEC.
Mr Ogboru and his party, APC, had sought to upturn the decision of the Delta State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which affirmed Mr Okowa’s election for a second term as governor of Delta State. INEC had declared Okowa and PDP winner of the March 9 governorship election in Delta State.
Justice Centus Nweze who read the decision of the apex court on Wednesday affirmed the election Mr Okowa.
In his argument, Yunus Usman, who represented the appellants, argued that the votes claimed by Mr Okowa exceeded the total number of accredited voters for the March 9, 2019 governorship election.
According to him a total of 757,754 registered for the election in the state, while the final declared numbers at the end of the election were 955,274 votes.
However, Mr Okowa’s lawyer, Damian Dodo, urged the court to dismiss the appeal for being incompetent and unmeritorious.
Mr Damian said the appellants have failed to prove all their allegations both at the tribunal and at the court of appeal.
But dismissing the appeal on Wednesday, the seven-member panel led by Justice Nweze, unanimously held that the appellants, Mr Ogboru and the APC, failed to prove allegations of over-voting.
Mr Nweze said: “the appeal is a share waste of the precious time of the court.”
Taraba
In the case of Taraba, the All Progressive Congress (APC) argued that the governor, Darius Ishaku, was not duly elected by a majority of lawful votes cast in the election.
The appellants also alleged noncompliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act (2010)
However, the lawyer who represented Mr Ishaku and the PDP, Kanu Agabi, urged the court to dismiss the APC’s appeal for being incompetent and lacking in merit.
Mr Agabi said the APC’s appeal has become academic following the withdrawal of their governorship candidate, Abubakar Danladi, from the petition, after his disqualification over false age declaration.
Responding to Mr Agabi’s submissions, the APC lawyer, Ishiaka Dikko, while admitting that the party’s candidate was disqualified from the election, said that the first runner up in the APC primaries ought to have been allowed to contest the election.
Mr Dikko urged the court to nullify Mr Ishiaku’s election and order a fresh election.
Delivering the judgment, the justices of the apex court all agreed that APC did not have a legal candidate at the election due to Mr Danladi’s disqualification.
One of the justices held that the APC’s argument that the runner up in the primaries be allowed to contest the election, was wrong because Sani Yahaya did not participate at any stage of the election. He said APC lacked the locus standi to file a petition in the first place at the tribunal.
Niger
The Supreme Court also affirmed the election of Abubakar Bello as the governor of Nover State.
The apex court while striking out the appeal filed by Umar Nasco of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), held that it lacked merit.
In the unanimous judgment read by Justice Mary Abaji, the court held that the Supreme Court will not tamper with the decisions of the Court of Appeal.
Mrs Abaji held that the Court of Appeal was right in holding that the decision of the tribunal delivered outside the 180 days allowed by law was a nullity. She said that a judgment already declared a nullity by the appellate court cannot confer any benefit on the PDP candidate and any other party.
She, therefore, agreed that the Supreme Court has no jurisdiction to entertain the appeal and consequently struck it out for want of jurisdiction.
Mr Nasko had challenged the election of Governor Bello at the tribunal on the ground that he submitted forged documents and gave false information in his form CF001 submitted to INEC to secure clearance for the March 9, 2019 election.
However, the tribunal failed to deliver judgment in the petition within 180 days allowed by law, prompting the Appeal Court to declare the judgment of the tribunal a nullity, having been delivered outside the required period.
Premium Times
The Supreme Court has reserved its judgment in the appeal filed by the Taminu Turaki-led group of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) seeking to overturn the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which nullified the conduct of the party’s national convention, held last year in Ibadan, Oyo State.
A five-member panel of the apex court announced on Wednesday that its judgment would be delivered on a date to be communicated to all parties in the appeal.
Justice Garba Mohammed, who led the five-member panel, made the announcement shortly after lawyers representing parties in the appeal adopted their processes as briefs of their arguments for and against the appeal.
The appeal was filed by the Turaki-led group’s national executives of the party who emerged from the convention.
They had approached the apex court to challenge the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which had nullified the convention for being held in disobedience of a valid order of the court.
While adopting their brief of argument filed on April 2, the appellants, through their team of lawyers led by Paul Erokoro (SAN), urged the Supreme Court not only to allow their appeal but also to dismiss a cross-appeal lodged against them by a leadership group in the party aligned with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike.
Meanwhile, Lamido, who was represented by J. C. Njikonye (SAN), as well as the Wike-backed group represented by Joseph Daudu (SAN), filed preliminary objections seeking dismissal of the appeal.
The respondents insisted that, contrary to the contention by the Turaki-led group, the appeal did not fall within the sphere of the PDP’s internal affairs.
It was the respondents’ position that both the high court and the appellate court had rightly exercised jurisdiction over the matter.
Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja, in a judgment last year, restrained the then-Ambassador Iliya Damagum-led National Executive Committee of the PDP from proceeding with the convention slated for November 15 and 16, 2026, in Ibadan, Oyo State.
Justice Lifu had ordered that the convention should not hold until an aspirant to the office of national chairman, former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido, is allowed to purchase interest and nomination forms to enable him to participate in the convention for the election of national officers.
The party, however, went ahead to conduct the convention in disregard of the orders of the court.
The PDP had predicated its action to conduct the convention on the grounds that the court lacked the jurisdiction to stop the convention, as the issue brought before it was an internal matter of the PDP, which no court has jurisdiction to delve into.
However, the appellate court in its judgment last month disagreed that the issue at the trial court was an internal affair of a political party, which courts cannot entertain.
The three-member panel of the appellate court subsequently nullified the outcome of the convention for being held in disobedience to the orders of the Federal High Court, Abuja.
Dissatisfied, the PDP approached the apex court, praying it to accept the appeal against the lower court judgment, set the judgment aside, and hold that the issue was an internal matter of the PDP, which both the Court of Appeal and the Federal High Court lacked jurisdiction to entertain.
However, the respondents in the appeal urged the court to dismiss the appeal for lack of merit and hold otherwise.
The Court of Appeal in Abuja has dismissed the appeal filed by Julius Abure challenging the legitimacy of the Nenadi Usman-led leadership of the Labour Party (LP).
A three-member panel of the appellate court, in a Tuesday judgment, unanimously affirmed the January 21 judgment by Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which upheld the legitimacy of the 29-member caretaker committee of the LP, led by Senator Usman.
In the lead judgment delivered by Justice Oyejoju Oyewumi, which Justices Abba Mohammed and Eberechi Nyesom-Wike agreed with, the appellate court held that the earlier Supreme Court judgment conclusively settled the leadership dispute within the LP by nullifying the convention that purportedly returned Abure as National Chairman.
Justice Lifu had, in the January 21 judgment, relied on an April 4, 2025, decision of the Supreme Court, which held that Abure’s tenure as the party’s National Chairman had expired. The judgment directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognize Senator Usman and other members of her committee as the legitimate leaders of the party, to the exclusion of all others.
The court further held that the lower court had the power under Section 251 of the Constitution to compel a statutory Federal government agency to perform its functions when it ordered INEC to recognize Senator Nenadi Usman as the National Chairman of the Labour Party.
It was equally agreed with the trial court that constituting the LP’s caretaker committee, headed by Usman, was a doctrine of necessity required to provide leadership in the party when a vacuum appeared to exist.
The court faulted Abure’s claim that the trial court denied him a fair hearing and accused him of abusing the court process.
The court also accused Abure of forum shopping by appearing before the Nasarawa State High Court in a case already decided by the Supreme Court, and of persisting in the claim the party’s leadership despite the apex court’s clear and unambiguous pronouncement.
It held that the appeal, marked: CA/ABJ/CV/255/2026, was devoid of merit and constituted an abuse of court process.
“On the whole, I agree with the decision and conclusion of the trial court as the same, being in accordance with the Constitution,” Justice Oyewumi held, adding that the lower court reached a reasonable conclusion that the Court of Appeal cannot fault.
While dismissing the appeal, the court awarded him costs of N10 million for wasting the court’s time on an issue that had already been conclusively determined.
Earlier, the court held that Nenadi Usman, as a juristic person, had the right to file the case before the trial court, and that the trial court had jurisdiction to hear and determine the case.
The court also rejected Abure’s allegation that the lower court denied him a fair hearing, noting that the claim lacked any basis.
President Bola Tinubu has approved a minor cabinet reshuffle in the membership of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
According to a memo signed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, two cabinet members, Mr. Wale Edun and Arc. Ahmed Musa Dangiwa are to leave the cabinet while their replacements have been named.
A statement signed by the Special Adviser, Media and Publicity to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Yomi Odunuga, on Tuesday evening, said Edun, until the latest development, was the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy.
“He has been directed to hand over to Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, who is now to take over as Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy. Oyedele was formerly a Minister of State in the ministry.
“Also Mr. Muttaqha Rabe Darma (PhD.) has been named as the ministerial nominee and minister-designate for the Housing and Urban Development Ministry,” Odunuga stated.
The memo also directed Dangiwa to hand over to the Minister of State in the ministry pending Darma’s confirmation.
The memo stated that “all handing over and taking over processes should be completed on or before close of business on Thursday 23rd April, 2026.”
Explaining the President’s decision, Odunuga quoted Akume as saying: “These changes are aimed at strengthening cohesion, synergy in governance as well as achieving more impactful delivery on the economy to Nigerians, through the Renewed Hope Agenda.”
He said the President, in approving the cabinet reshuffle, has fully exercised his powers as conferred on him by Sections 147 and 148 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999, as amended).
The President thanked the outgoing ministers for their services to the nation while wishing them the best in all their future endeavours.
The President, Akume noted, equally assured all cabinet members that “the process of reinvigoration shall be continuous.”
