By Nengi GREEN
More state governors will be knowing their fate this week as Governorship Election Tribunals wind down their activities.
In all, 18 political parties fielded candidates for the governorship elections in 28 out of the 36 states of the federation.
This is so because the governorship elections of eight states (Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi, Osun and Ondo) are held off-season due to litigations and court judgements.
Already, governors of Benue, Bauchi, Enugu, Zamfara, Kano and Plateau states have already have their cases decided.
While all the elections of the already decided cases were upheld, the governor of Kano state, Abba Kabir Yusuf, of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, was upturned and his certificate of return withdrawn and Nasir Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress, APC, was declared the winner.
Lagos
The tribunal for the Lagos governorship has fixed Monday, September 25 to deliver judgment on the petitions filed by the governorship candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, and his counterpart of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Olajide Adediran (Jandor) against the election of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat.
The tribunal led by Justice Arum Igyen Ashom had on August 12, reserved judgement after lawyers in the petitions adopted their final written addresses.
However, the tribunal on Saturday informed parties in the suit that judgement would be delivered on Monday.
Rhodes-Vivour, in his petition marked EPT/LAG/GOV/04/2023 dated April 9, 2023, had urged the tribunal to nullify Sanwo-Olu’s victory on the alleged grounds that the candidate of the All Progressives Congress was not qualified to run in the election.
The LP candidate, in his petition, contended that Sanwo-Olu’s emergence as winner “was invalid by reason of corrupt practices or non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999. The second respondent was not duly elected by the majority of the lawful votes cast at the election.”
Adediran, in his petition, contended that Sanwo-Olu and his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat, were at the time of election not qualified to contest.
He also said the LP candidate, Rhodes-Vivour, who was declared the first runner-up, was not qualified to participate in the election either.
Cross River
The Cross River State Governorship elections petition tribunal has fixed Tuesday, September 26, 2023 for judgment in a suit seeking to remove Governor Bassey Otu and his deputy, Hon Peter Odey from power.
In suit number EPT/CR/GOV/02/2023 which was jointly instituted by the PDP governorship flagbearer in the 2023 election, Prof. Sandy Onor and his party, PDP, against the election which saw Senator Otu as the winner.
The tribunal, led by Justice Okenn Ineh, announced the date on Sunday in Calabar.
Some of the states waiting for judicial pronouncement this week are: are: Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Borno, Rivers, Delta, Ebonyi, Gombe, Kaduna, Katsina, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Oyo, Sokoto, and Taraba.
