The long awaited judgments of the National-State Assembly Election Petition Tribunal for Bauchi State on certain petitions that are of public interest are now in sight as the Tribunal has fixed 6th and 10th days of September, 2019 for judgments on the petitions.
An election petition number EPT/NASE/BA/9/2019 between Honourable Faruk Mustapha of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) and Adamu Muhammad Bulkachuwa of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is one for which not only the people of the Bauchi-North Senatorial District, the senatorial district over which the petition was filed, are agog about outcomes of the matter but the entire people of Bauchi State and indeed many Nigerians. People across party lines exhibited immense interest in the matter from the day it was filed before the Tribunal apparently because of the circumstances in which the first respondent, Zainab Bulkachuwa’s husband, Adamu Bulkachuwa was declared and returned winner of the said election for Bauchi-North Senatorial District by the third respondent, INEC.
There has been a widespread public belief even among supporters of the APC, that the election was won by the first petitioner, Honourable Faruk Mustapha of the NNPP but manipulated in favour of the first respondent, Bulkachuwa.
Parties in the suit had adopted their final written addresses since the 21st day of August, 2019, and the court reserved its judgement. Since then, parties and interested members of the public have been awaiting decisions of the Tribunal on the matter. Now that the Court has slated the sixth day of September for judgments on three election petitions including the one between Faruk Mustapha and the husband of the President of the Nigeria’s Court of Appeal, Adamu Bulchuwa, people are much more concerned about the outcomes the case. The outcomes no doubt will go a long way in defining the electoral jurisprudence of the country and underscore how the Nigerian judiciary play its role of a stabiliser of the Nigerian democratisation and politics in general.
With release of the date for judgments, people are eager to know where the pendulum will swing to particularly in respect of the petition between Honourable Mustapha and Senator Bulkachuwa considering the proceedings of the Tribunal during hearing of the matter. Many are confident that the judgment would not betray expectations of the public.
It would be recalled that Honourable Mustapha and the NNPP in their efforts to justify the alleged electoral frauds perpetrated in the Bauchi-North Senatorial District during the 2019 senatorial election had invited several witnesses and tendered 745 exhibits of more than 7000 pages that depicted alterations and other electoral malpractices said to have been perpetrated by electoral officials to favour the first respondent which were all admitted in evidence by the Tribunal. The exhibits included certified true copies and duplicate original of INEC forms EC8A1 for the constituency; card reader print out reports; list of candidates for Senate in Bauchi State; voter registers and summary of candidates nominated at political party primaries in the State.
In his defence, the first respondent, Senator Bulkachuwa called only one witness Abdulqadir Isawa, who served as his campaign director during the said election. Isawa a star prosecution witness identified his statement on oath and urged the Tribunal to admit same in evidence and was admitted by the Tribunal. However the first respondent could not called more witnesses as earlier indicated but abruptly closed his defence. Lead Counsel for the first respondent Usman Sule, SAN informed the Tribunal that they decided not to called more witnesses because they were satisfied with the information they elicited from the prosecution witnesses during cross examination adding that they had captured their remaining submissions in their final written addresses.
Similarly, the second and third respondents did not call any witness as they said doing so is tantamount to crying more than the bereaved.
However, during adoption of final written addresses, parties except INEC whose counsel was not at the Tribunal, through their counsel applied to the court by way of adumbration for conflicting requests. Lead counsel for senator Bulkachuwa, Usman Sule SAN, argued that the petitioners failed to prove their case before the Tribunal stressing that they did not tied the exhibits they brought with the petition instead they only dumped the exhibits on the Tribunal. He added that the Tribunal was not an investigator but an adjudicator, and that the burden of proof lied on the petitioners which he said they failed to carry.
The lead counsel Sule SAN also submitted that testimonies of all the prosecution witnesses constituted a hearsay because they were not at the polling units in contention but were only told stories by agents. On these bases both the leading counsel for the first respondent and the counsel for the second respondent, APC, Mohammed Mahammed unanimously urged the Tribunal to dismiss the petition and award them cost against the petitioners.
However, in his reply counsel for the petitioners Joe Dappa objected claims of the first and second respondents’ counsel that the petitioners only dumped their exhibits on the Court and that the witnesses’ testimonies constituted mere hearsay. Dappa argued that, witness deposition once adopted becomes their evidence in chief and that the exhibits as analysed and incorporated in the said statement on oath, and tendered in court without objections become part of the statement on oath.
For this submission, Dappa referred the Tribunal to the cases of Uzu against Ogbu and another; MTN Nigeria Communication Unit against Corporation Commission Investment Limited, 2019 Volume 9 of the Nigerian Weekly Law Reports page 247 and other legal authorities. The petitioners’ counsel also argued that the prosecution witnesses identified all the exhibits before the court and related each exhibit to a paragraph in the petition during hearing. He therefore informed the court that the said exhibits could not be said to have been dumped and the testimonies and evidence of the prosecution witnesses could not also be said to be hearsay. He added that the witnesses gave the evidence based on their observations of the documents, drawing attention of the court to the fact that the alterations in the result in dispute were done by the third respondent, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC after issuance of the duplicate original to agents. He urged the court to discountenance the submissions of the first and second respondents underlining that they wanted to rely on technicalities instead of facts.
Dappa further responded to exhibits RR, SS, and TT as incorporated in the first respondent’s final written address. He submitted that the said exhibits went to no issue as the third respondent, INEC did not plead any material fact in respect of the exhibits.
The counsel for the petitioners further said all the respondents did not respond to the petitioners’ second and third issues and urged the court to determine them in favour of the petitioners.
Eventually, Dappa implored the Tribunal to declare and return his client Honourable Mustapha as the duly elected candidate in the February 23rd 2019 National Assembly Election for the Bauchi-North Senatorial District having scored the majority of lawful votes cast at the election.
Judgment of the Tribunal on the matter which will be reeled out on Friday the sixth day of September 2019 is expected to put the matter to rest however, that can only happen if justice is not only served but seen to be served by the Tribunal.
Other petitions on which judgments will be delivered on Friday include petitions numbers: EPT/NASE/BA/1/2019 Garba Dahiru and PDP Versus APC and INEC over the 23rd February National Assembly election for Bauchi-South Senatorial District; EPT/NASE/BA/13/2019 Lawal Hussaini Ibrahim versus INEC, APC and Garba Dahiru still over the Bauchi-South senatorial election.
Also released, was the schedule for judgments that will be dealt out by the Tribunal on Tuesday next week, the tenth day of September 2019. The most expected among them perhaps is the petition number EPT/NASE/BA/7/2019 between Bappa Aliyu Misau and Senator Halliru Dauda Jika, APC and INEC over election for Bauchi-Central Senatorial District.
The rest are petitions numbers EPT/NAHR/BA/6/2019 Is a Mohammed Wabu and NNPP Versus Honourable Mohammed Garba Gololo, APC and INEC over Gamawa Federal Constituency 2019 election and EPT/NAHR/BA/10/2019 Ahmed Yerima and PDP Versus Makama Misau Ibrahim, APC and INEC over Misau-Dambam Federal Constituency 2019 election of Bauchi State.
Would also be recalled that the Tribunal delivered judgments on three petitions last week where it dismissed Senator Isa Gamma Misau’s Petition against Senator Halliru Jika and that of Dayyabu Chiroma of PRP against Mansur Manu Soro of the APC for lack of convincing evidence. The Court also ordered INEC to conduct rerun election in Katagum Federal Constituency and to retrieve certificate of return from Abdulkadir Umar Sarki of the PRP.
Out of 19 petitions that survived trial stage, three have been disposed and six more are on the verge. The Tribunal has barely one month left to conclude its assignment. It is therefore expected that judgments will be delivered on the the remaining ten petitions in the coming weeks.
