The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) plot to remove Adamawa state Governor murtala Nyako through legal process, Tuesday, collapsed as the Supreme Court dismissed two petitions challenging his election.
The two petitions were filed by the party and its candidate Mr. Markus Gondiri in which they sought the order of the court to nullify the election of governor Nyako on account of alleged irregularities and failure to substantially comply with the Electoral Act.
Justice Clara Ogunbiyi who read the unanimous verdict of the court tongue-lashed ACN for bringing criminal allegations cleverly dressed as civil allegation before the court.
Justice Ogunbiyi held that the request by CAN that the Supreme Court should help it severe the criminal allegations from the civil allegation was strange and could not be granted as doing so by any court would amount to helping a party in a suit to advance its case.
The Supreme Court after reviewing the cases of ACN and its governorship candidates cases at the tribunal and court of Appeal said that the duo failed woefully to prove any of the bundles of the allegations they brought for adjudication.
The apex court held that it has never happened and would not happen for a law court to do the case of one party insisting that in the instant case, it was the duty of the two appellants to do their jobs as required by law.
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).
The party also faulted the election on the alleged ground of non-accreditation of voters, multiple thumb printing, voting without biometric evidence and non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
The Court however agreed with Chief Godwin KanuAgabi, counsel to governor Nyako and Malam Hassan Liman that most of the allegations of the two petitioners were criminal in nature which ought to have been complained to security agencies for a thorough investigation and report before rushing to court.
The apex court also agreed that the criminal and civil allegations raised by the two appellants were so intertwined that they cannot be severed without destroying the case.
Besides, the court also noted that over 60 statements made on oath by the witnesses of the two appellants were not signed by the witnesses and their interpreter thereby rendering the statements worthless and in admissible in law.
In the two judgments delivered by Justices Musa Datiji Mohammed and Clara Bata Ogunbiyi, they held that the two appeal cases lacked merit and subsequently dismissed them.
Reacting to the verdict, INEC lawyer, Malam Hassan Liman SAN asked politicians to learn how to accept defeat in good faith when an election was fairly and freely conducted.
The SAN argued that it would serve no purpose to chase shadow and waste the precious time to the court.
