The Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed the election of Governor Kefas Agbu of Taraba State.
The five-member panel of the apex court, unanimously affirmed the election of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP’s) candidate, shortly after dismissing the appeal filed by Yahaya Sani of the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP) for being incompetent and lacking in merit in a judgment delivered by Justice Garba Lawal.
Sani had prayed the apex court to set aside the victory of Kefas in the March 18, 2023, governorship election while alleging non-compliance with the Electoral Act, irregularities, and other malpractices.
He asked the court to pronounce him the winner of the election on the grounds of scoring a majority of the lawful votes cast.
The Court of Appeal in Abuja, had in November dismissed Sani’s appeal and affirmed the Tribunal’s judgement upholding Kefas’ election.
In a unanimous decision, the appellate court dismissed the appeal of the NNPP for lacking merit, as did the Tribunal on September 30.
While delivering the judgement at the Supreme Court, Justice Lawal pointed out that the appellants did not provide any tangible evidence to show that the two judgments of the Court of Appeal and Taraba Governorship Election Petition Tribunal were perverse in dismissing their case.
According to Justice Lawal, the Court of Appeal was right in holding that the case of the appellants was incompetent on grounds of incomplete transmission of the record of proceedings.
The apex court subsequently affirmed the concurrent judgments that affirmed the declaration of Agbu as winner of the March 18, 2023, governorship election in Taraba State.
