Supreme Court Gives Reasons For Upholding Taraba Governor’s Election

SAN FRANCISCO, February 22, (THEWILL) – The Supreme Court has explained that it upheld the election of the Taraba State Governor, Architect Darius Ishiaku because the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state, Aisha Alhassan, had no locus standi to challenge the nomination of Ishiaku to stand for the election by his Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

The apex court made this assertion on Monday while giving reasons for its February 11 judgment dismissing the appeal by the APC and Al-Hassan, also known as ‘Mama Taraba’.

Reading details of the judgment, Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour said the appeals and cross appeals had no redeemable substance, stressing that the governor was duly sponsored by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to contest in the election and that the evidence brought before it confirmed Ishiaku as a member of the party.

“The matter is very simple, the apex court has ruled on matters of this nature at different occasions.

“There is no way a candidate of another political party who did not participate in the primaries of another political party could suddenly rise to challenge the conduct of such an exercise,” the apex court ruled.

It would be recalled that the Taraba Election Petitions Tribunal had nullified the governor's election and proceeded to declare Alhassan as the duly elected governor of the state. But an appeal by Ishiaku overruled the tribunal judgment.

This prompted Al-Hassan and the APC to approach the apex court, which on February 11 dismissed their appeals and affirmed the validity of the governor's election.

Rhodes-Vivour, who averred that the Taraba State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal grossly misdirected itself by upturning Ishiaku's victory, maintained that “the appeals and the entire cross appeals against the election of Governor Darius Ishiaku of Taraba have no redeemable substance”.