Judges at the Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, have upheld the election of the governor of Benue state, Gabriel Suswan in the April 2011 elections.
The ruling thereby dismissed the appeal by the governorship candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Professor Steve Ugba which prayed the Court to order the state’s governorship election tribunal to commence hearing of his petition seeking to unseat Mr Suswam irrespective of expiry of the 180 days provided for by the constitution.
In the lead judgement read by Justice Kayode Ariwoola, “no court can by any mean or way elongate, extend the 180 days specified by the constitution. There is no contradiction between Section 36 and Section 285(6) of the 1999 Constitution. He added that “The lower court can order a re-trial of that petition but not outside the 180 days provided for by the constitution as any order outside this is null and void. No court has the jurisdiction to go beyond the enabling law” he added.
So, basically, Suswam may have or may not have won the lections but Prof Steve Ugba's delay in appealing is the only reason why Suswam's election was upheld!
*Yawns*
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