The first stanza of the post-election legal tussle between the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Kogi State was concluded on May 17 with the former gaining an upper hand. The Justice Suleiman Anbursa-led tribunal sitting in Lokoja dismissed the matter brought before it by Prince Abubakar Audu, the candidate of ACN in the December 3, 2011 governorship poll. Audu had approached the tribunal, challenging the return of Captain Idris Wada as winner of the election.
In the two and half hours judgement he delivered, Justice Anbursa said the petitioners could not prove their cases beyond reasonable doubt, saying the witnesses that testified for them could not be relied upon. He said four issues were decided by the tribunal; the qualification of the first respondent, whether the election complied with the Electoral Act as amended, whether Audu scored the highest lawful votes in the poll and whether rigging, electoral violence and other malpractices characterised the election.
He held that the testimonies of the petitioners’ witnesses on the conduct of the poll across the state were conflicting, and the tribunal found such evidences unreliable. According to him, even the issues of the qualification of the first respondent raised by the petitioners were later abandoned in the course of exchange of briefs on the petition by their counsels.
Justice Anbursa stressed that the petitioners could equally not convinced the tribunal that the poll was characterized with multiple voting, rigging and other electoral malpractices, because the witnesses they brought to testify on the matter gave conflicting statements.
According to him, even the testimony of the man that carried out the scanning of the electoral materials was neither here nor there. He maintained that the tribunal was left with no other choice but to dismiss the petition.
Justice Anbursa posited that the candidate of ACN could not convince the tribunal that he scored the highest votes in the said election, since the petitioners did not produce other result, aside the one declared by the electoral umpire. He therefore concluded by affirming the poll that brought the first respondent to power, and subsequently dismissed the entire petition for want of evidence.
Reacting to the development, the Special Adviser to Governor Wada on Media and Strategy, Mr. Jacob Edi, said the tribunal delivered a comprehensive judgement, noting that the learned Justices did not leave any stone unturned before arriving at the decision. He noted that the landmark judgement was one to be well appreciated.
But the Chief Strategist to Prince Abubakar Audu, Hon. Dino Melaye, at a media briefing, expressed shock that the tribunal could waved aside all the oral and documentary evidences they presented before the three-man panel of the tribunal.
He said although they were not surprise with the verdict of the tribunal, they would however petition the National Judicial Council (NJC) for the way and manner the members of the tribunal came up with such “incredible” decision.
Dino added that they never told the tribunal that the person that carried out the scanning of the ballot papers was an expert in election matters, saying all they know was that the man did a thorough job. He therefore wondered how such overwhelming evidence could be overlooked by the tribunal, describing the judgement as a shame.
He further described the development as a setback for democracy, justice and truth, even as he insisted that no matter how long, truth shall always catch up with falsehood. The former National Assembly member therefore expressed confidence that the judgement of the tribunal would be “crushed” at the Appeal Court.
As the petitioners put their papers together to commence the second leg of the three-phase legal tussle on the election of December 3, 2011, the people of Kogi State await the outcome of this “fireworks”, which will now shift to Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.