Funso Muraina, Seriki Adinoyi and Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo
16 July 2008
Jos — The worst fears of Senate President David Mark appeared over yesterday as the Court of Appeal sitting in Jos, Plateau State capital, gave him a political lifeline.
Ruling in the appeal filed by Mark against the decision of the Benue State Election Petitions Tribunal nullifying his election into the Senate, the court upturned the verdict of the tribunal and returned Mark as the Senator representing Benue South Senatorial district.
A loss at the appellate court would have meant Mark automatically stepping down as Senate president as he would have lost his seat in the Senate in the first instance.
President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua was said to have delayed his flight and visit to the United Kingdom (UK) by two hours, all in a bid to get first-hand information about the Court of Appeal's ruling.
Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, who read the lead judgment which part was in long hand, said the returning officer for the election who cancelled the results from Agatu and Okpokwu Local Government areas of the senatorial district acted beyond his power and in contravention of Section 69 of the Electoral Act.
Quoting the affidavit evidence of the returning officer, Justice Bulkachuwa said the returning officer only chose to run for his life by not announcing the results and when he got to Makurdi, he decided to fill the results on the paper.
According to her, the results from the polling units across the district were duly signed by party agents including those of ANPP and security agents and the only job left for the returning officer was to announce them.
The judge said owing to security problem he could not perform his job and had to run to Markudi.
The court said all processes of the election had been concluded and it was wrong for the returning officer to have willy-nilly refused to announce the results.
Justice Bulkachuwa held that the lower tribunal erred by upturning Mark's election, saying the tribunal failed to thoroughly evaluate the evidence of the returning officer.
"The decision of lower tribunal is hereby set aside and the election of the appellant affirmed and I make no order as to cost," she said.
On the quorum of the lower tribunal complained about by Mark, the court said the tribunal was properly constituted as at the time it delivered its ruling and that the fact that there was a variation in the membership would not be sufficient to vitiate the judgment.
On the forgery of exhibit complained about by the petitioner, the court found that the lower tribunal ought to have examined the allegation but held that it was doubtful whether the falsification would have helped the respondent's case.
In his reaction to the ruling, the Senate president expressed gratitude to God, saying the judgment had further reaffirmed his faith in the judiciary and the project Nigeria.
"I just thank God and Nigerians for their prayers," he said shortly after the court's judgment.
Mark said: "This landmark judgment is a further manifestation of the role of the judiciary in sustaining democracy, justice and the rule of law in Nigeria. Today's judgment has also reaffirmed my faith and confidence in the judiciary and the project Nigeria."
According to a statement issued by the Special Adviser Media and Communication to the Senate President, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, President Yar'Adua reportedly delayed his flight to the UK by two hours in a bid to get first-hand information about the Court of Appeal ruling.
"To my opponent, Usman and his supporters, I urge them like good sportsmen to close ranks and join me in the arduous task ahead. In this case, there are no losers but winners. I bear no grudge against anyone. But I hope that above all, this judgement will usher the much needed unity in Idomaland. It is only in unity that our land can develop.
"Let me seize this opportunity to thank particularly, President Yar'Adua who had to delay his scheduled official journey by over two hours to listen to this judgment, the Vice-President, Dr Jonathan Goodluck and my bosses "
The All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) candidate, Alhaji Usman Maishanu Abubakar, had challenged Mark's election at the lower tribunal.
The tribunal had ordered a re-run in two local governments of Agatu and Okpokwu to determine the winner of the election between the two.
But Mark challenged the ruling at the Court of Appeal, following which Abubakar also filed a cross appeal at the court, saying he ought to be declared the winner since he won more lawful votes than Mark.
The judgment given yesterday was therefore in respect of three election appeals filed by Mark, Abubakar and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Shortly after the judgment was delivered, Mark's supporters threw the entire Jos premises of the court into a frenzy, singing and dancing. They were also seen firing gunshots into the air
Among the early callers at the Apo Mansion Residence of the Senate president were Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswam, and the wife of the Vice-President, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, who later had lunch with Mark.
Suswam said: "It's been a long and tortuous journey and we are happy that we have come to the end of the journey," adding that he would have a talk with Usman and plead with him to help move the state forward.
A beehive of activities enveloped Mark's Apo residence as serving and former Senators thronged his home, celebrating with choice wines and music.
Security men attached to the Senate president were not left out of the celebrations.
Mark was split between taking phone calls and returning congratulatory greetings from his colleagues who thronged his residence.
His bosom friend and former colleague in the Fifth Senate, Senator Tunde Ogbeha, was comfortably seated in the main sitting room of the mansion beaming with smiles and also returning greetings from his former colleagues.
As the Appeal Court was set to deliver judgment in the appeal, the state police command, had tightened security to avert violence.
Dozens of fierce-looking combined security personnel had kept guard, preparatory to the judgment.
Oyinlola Wins Too...
Also yesterday, the Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, dismissed the petition filed by the Action Congress (AC) governorship candidate in last year's general election, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola.
The tribunal chairman, Justice Thomas Naron, in a 159-page judgment, upheld the election of Governor Olagun-soye Oyinlola of the state.
The judgment came against the backdrop of strident allegations that the tribunal had compromised itself owing to reports of calls and text messages allegedly exchanged by the tribunal chairman and Oyinlola's counsel, Otunba Kunle Kalejaiye (SAN).
Naron said the prayers of the petitioner in respect of the 12 local government areas were inconsistent with the Electoral Act, 2006.
Counsel to the petitioner, Kola Awodein, had alleged that the said election was characterised by irregularities, stating that ballot boxes were stuffed with tumb-printed ballot papers and there were snatching of ballot boxes and violence in 12 local government areas of the state.
The local government areas are Ayedaade, Boluwaduro, Odo-Otin, Boripe, Atakumosa West, Atakumosa East, Ife South, Ife East, Ife Central, Ede North, Isokan and Olaoluwa.
Naron said the petition failed in its entirety because some of the witnesses based their evidence on hearsay, which he described as unreliable.
Earlier, Awodein had made an application to the tribunal to issue subpoena to invite the MTN to come and testify on the fresh application on why the tribunal should disqualify itself from giving judgment in the petition.
But, the lead counsel to Oyinlola, Nathaniel Oke, asked the court to discountenance the prayer, saying it was not part of the matter on the ground and that the matter on the ground was to deliver judgment.
In his ruling on the application brought forward by Aregbesola's counsel, the tribunal chairman dismissed the application on the ground that there was no provision for arrest of judgment in civil matters.
Immediately after that ruling, the lead counsel to Aregbesola left the premises of the court without waiting to hear the final judgment.
Members of AC including Aregbesola boycotted the court in accordance with the directive issued by the leadership of the party while members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) including top government functionaries stormed the court.
In his reaction, the Deputy National Vice-Chairman (South-west) of PDP, Alhaji Tajudeen Oladipo, said the opposition wanted to arrest the ruling because they knew that they had no case.
But in his initial response, Aregbesola said the tribunal verdict should not come to all right thinking Nigerians as a surprise "considering the activities of the tribunal judges to deny evidences, subpoena, exclusion of evidence on unsupportable technicalities, open romance of the judges, especially Justice Joy Apkughunum and counsel of Oyinlola, in this case and the recent earth-shaking revelations of telephone conversations between Justice Naron and Oyinlola's counsel, Otunba Kunle Kalejaiye, SAN, as revealed by TheNews magazine."
He said: "On all the rulings and judgments of the tribunal on 20 petitions outside the governorship petition, it is clear that the judges were not interested in the course of justice but rather in its perversion. The judgment arrived at today is therefore not unexpected and therefore absolutely rejected."
According to him, "The conduct of the Thomas Naron-led tribunal is a big subtraction from the new-found integrity of the Nigerian judiciary, in which our faith still remains unshaken.
"The issues involved here are beyond the ambition of an individual, it involves the integrity of our democratic process, the judiciary, national psyche and general dignity and honour of the Nigerian nation.
"As an individual, perhaps, one could easily overlook this travesty and end the struggle. However, considering the fact that we are living in this time and age, with the opprobrium that our race is held worldwide and the general decadence of our society, it is an historic duty for us to advance the cause of justice, democracy, rule of law, freedom and equity by being unrelenting and unsparing in our resolve to confront and demolish all structures established to advance fraud and perversion of all the values we hold sacred."
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