The Supreme Court of Nigeria on Friday delivered a landmark ruling, affirming the election victories of three key governors in the November 11, 2023, off-cycle governorship polls.
The governors—Hope Uzodimma of Imo State, Duoye Diri of Bayelsa State, and Usman Ododo of Kogi State—had their mandates upheld after intense legal battles.
In Imo State, the apex court dismissed the appeals filed by the Labour Party (LP) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), whose candidates, Athan Achonu and Samuel Anyanwu, respectively, challenged the legitimacy of Uzodimma’s victory.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Uzodimma the winner with 540,308 votes, far ahead of Anyanwu’s 71,503 votes and Achonu’s 64,081 votes.
Delivering the lead judgment, Justice Mohammed Baba Idris stated that the appellants failed to prove allegations of overvoting and other electoral malpractices.
The court upheld the earlier decisions of both the Court of Appeal and the Imo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, affirming Uzodimma’s election as lawful and dismissing the petitions for lack of merit.
In Kogi State, Usman Ododo’s victory was also upheld by the Supreme Court. Ododo, who garnered 446,237 votes to defeat his closest rival, Murtala Ajaka of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), faced a legal challenge from Ajaka, who alleged substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
However, the apex court ruled that these allegations were unsubstantiated. It further clarified that issues of age falsification and certificate forgery should have been addressed as pre-election matters in the Federal High Court, thereby dismissing Ajaka’s appeal as lacking merit.
Similarly, in Bayelsa State, Governor Duoye Diri’s re-election was confirmed by the Supreme Court, which dismissed the appeal of Timipre Sylva, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate. Sylva’s appeal had been previously deemed an abuse of court process by the Court of Appeal after he filed two notices of appeal—an act the Supreme Court panel, led by Justice Lawal Garba, ruled as unconstitutional.
The court reaffirmed Diri’s victory, who had secured 175,196 votes against Sylva’s 110,108.
These rulings bring a conclusive end to the electoral disputes in Imo, Bayelsa, and Kogi States, solidifying the mandates of Governors Uzodimma, Diri, and Ododo as they continue their respective tenures.