Supreme Court Upholds Nyako’s Election

The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed the two petitions filled by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and its gubernatorial candidate, Mr. Markus Gondiri, chall for lacking merit.

Consequently, the Justice Clara Ogunbiyi-led five-man panel of the apex court justices upheld the election of Admiral Muritala Nyako as the duly elected governor of Adamawa state.

ACN and its candidate had sought the order of the court to nullify the election on account of alleged irregularities and failure to substantially comply with the Electoral Act 2010.

But Justice Ogunbiyi tongue-lashed ACN for bringing criminal allegations cleverly dressed as civil allegation before the court.

The apex court frowned at the request of ACN that the court should help it sever the criminal allegations from the civil allegation as strange, saying it could not be granted as doing so by any court would amount to helping a party in a suit to advance its cause.

The Supreme Court after reviewing the cases of ACN and its governorship candidate’s cases at the tribunal and Court of Appeal said that the duo failed woefully to prove any of the allegations they brought for adjudication..

ACN,? through the former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Chief Akin Olujinmi (SAN), had approached the apex court to void the Adamawa governorship election of February 4, 2011.

The grouse of the party and its candidate was that no election was conducted in the state and no result was also declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

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