2023 Guber: Fubara, Agbu Kefas Win At Supreme Court

The Supreme Court, on Thursday, upheld the elections of Governors Siminalayi Fubara and Agbu Kefas of Rivers and Taraba State respectively.

For Rivers, a five-member panel of the apex court chaired by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun dismissed an appeal filed by Mr. Tonye Cole, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, challenging the victory of Fubara in the March 18, 2023, gubernatorial election.

According to the court, the appeal lacked merit and was therefore struck out. The apex court also ruled that there was no justification for overturning the concurrent rulings of the Court of Appeal and the Rivers State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, which confirmed Fubara’s election victory.

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One of the claims in the appeal for which Cole sought nullification of Fubara’s victory was that the election was not conducted in accordance with the Electoral Act of 2022. The top court however ruled that the appellant failed to prove it.

INEC had declared that Fubara of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) scored a total of 302,614 votes to defeat his closest rival, Cole of the APC who polled 95,274 votes.

Kefas’ Victory in Taraba Guber

The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, dismissed the appeal by Yahaya Sani of the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP) for lacking in merit.

Sani had in his appeal, prayed the apex court to nullify the declaration of Kefas as winner in the March 18, 2023, governorship election in Taraba State, alleging non-compliance with the Electoral Act, and other malpractices.

The appellant, who claimed to have received a majority of the lawful votes cast in the election, had requested the court to pronounce him the winner of the election.

In the March 18, 2023 poll, Kefas had received 257,926 votes, more than Sani’s 202,277 votes, according to INEC.

Dissatisfied with the outcome, Sani approached the Taraba State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal seeking to be made winner of the election. On September 30, the tribunal however ruled in favour of Governor Kefas prompting Sani to move to the Court of Appeal in Abuja.