2007 governorship poll: Ohakim, Aliyu know fate today

Written by This Day Friday, 16 July 2010

The Supreme Court will on Friday (today) determine whether or not Mr. Ikedi Ohakim and Dr. Babangida Aliyu will remain as governors of Imo and Niger states respectively.

Two cases, on which the apex court will deliver judgment, are those in which Ohakim is seeking a pronouncement on the power of the Independent National Electoral Commission to annul an election and that of a Peoples Democratic Party governorship aspirant in Niger State, Alhaji Balla Gunna.

The PDP aspirant had asked the apex court to hold that he was the rightful candidate for the governorship poll, since, according to him, he won the PDP governorship primaries in Niger State.

Ohakim and INEC had gone to the apex court, asking it to set aside the decision of the Court of Appeal in Abuja last year that INEC could be challenged on the issue of cancelled poll by any aggrieved contestant.

But the two appellants canvassed before the apex court that since a rerun had been conducted and a winner emerged, no court had the jurisdiction to entertain any suit on the cancelled poll

An All Progessives Grand Alliance candidate in the April 14, 2007 poll , Chief Martins Agbaso, had sued INEC at the Federal High Court for cancelling the election, which he claimed to have won.

He had applied for an order of mandamus to compel INEC to announce the result of the April 14, 2007 election, in line with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2006.

Agbaso also canvassed that the rerun won by Ohakim be voided on the grounds that INEC had no power to annul an already concluded election.

He had also informed the court that both the election for state House of Assembly and governorship were held together and that INEC was fraudulent in cancelling the governorship aspect and upholding the state Assembly poll.

The APGA candidate, therefore, sought for an order to revalidate the governorship election, in which he claimed he won in 24 out of the 26 local government areas of the state.

Although the Federal High Court declined jurisdiction, it held that INEC could be challenged on the annulled poll by any contestant.

Dissatisfied with the decision, Ohakim and INEC had approached the Supreme Court, asking it to set aside the decision.

Ohakim and INEC had also in their grounds of appeal claimed that INEC had the power to cancel election at any stage and that since Agbaso participated in the April 28 rerun, his legal rights on the annulled April 14 election had abated.

The Supreme Court will now determine whether or not INEC has the power to cancel an election at any stage and whether Agbaso still has legal rights to enquire into an annulled poll.

In his suit, Gunna claimed that he won the PDP primaries in Niger State in 2006 but that his name was unlawfully substituted by PDP with that of Governor Aliyu Babangida without his consent.