WHAT NIGERIA CONSTITUTION MEAN BY SECOND HIGHEST VOTE CAST THAT CONFUSED JUSTICE TAIWO TAIWO:
By Tola O. Ajimisogbe.
I have carefully and constructively considered all the logjams, interpretations, reinterpretations and confusion going on in the mind of my dear brothers and sisters of Delta State Political families, and finds it expedient to illuminate minds of Deltans concerning the skewed judgement of His Lordship, Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, in the case between my very respected brothers and friends, Chief David Edevbie and Chief Elder Rt. Hon. Sheriff F. O. Oborevwori.
In the said judgement, His Lordship had erroneously altered the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and set on fire; the Nigeria Electoral Act 2022 as amended by disqualifying a genuinely and legally nominated PDP Guber candidate of the good people of Delta State; replacing same with unpopular aspirant who couldn't score more than 12% votes of the respected Delegates of the ruling party on the 25th day of May this year.
The trial Judge while not been careful enough sets his feet in a pot of mud when he disqualified the Defendant (now the Appellant) and pronounced the Plaintiff (now the Respondent) validly nominated candidate of Delta PDP against the wish of Deltans.
It is undoubtedly correct to say that the trial Judge relied motionlessly on market women judgement; such that could only have happened in the 19th Century's Benin civilization.
For the avoidance of doubt, there are legal 'nunus', and of course, ingredients known to Nigeria Constitution (Supra). These ingredients are not there for fun.
The framers of our Constitution are no doubt aware of the coming of cases such as the one under review (David Edevbie v Sheriff Oborevwori & others), hence they made provision well ahead.
In doing justice futuristically, the Electoral Act, unequivocally stated that "A candidate for a contested election to the office of Governor shall be declared winner if he has:
1. Highest number of votes cast at the election; and
2. Not less than one-quarter of all the votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of all the LGAs in the state.
It is also instructive to note that the Constitution of the Peoples Democratic Party did not mention either expressly or impliedly the format that party primaries would take. Whether Simple Majority or Super Majority. The party was however quick to align with Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Electoral Act, as amended. This means that the above position of the electoral act also supervised party primaries.
In the Delta State gubernatorial primary that Justice Taiwo Taiwo laboured in vain to rubbish, total delegates were 835. Rt. Honourable Elder Sheriff F. O. Oborevwori pulled a total of 590 lawful votes leaving other aspirants including the Plaintiff (now Respondent) to shared less than 300 votes.
In what mathematical calculation is David Edevbie in the eyes of the law qualified to be declared winner haven scored 113 votes (less than 12% of total votes cast by delegates), assuming but not in anyway in agreement, the Defendant (now Appellant) was lawfully disqualified? It's unthinkable.
These electoral rules without doubt remain valid, since nothing was said to buttress or dismantle paragraph 5 of section 35 of the electoral act.
Consequently, the Electoral Act, in all standards took care of Governorship Primary Election because the act would not provide for a minority governor or a governor sponsored or elected by minority few of delegates.
Since Justice Taiwo Taiwo threw-way the baby and the bad water, there will be nothing remaining to place Edevbie at vantage position to replace Elder Sheriff francis Oborevwori, the lawfully nominated governorship candidate of Delta PDP.
In its simplest interpretation, the idea of the 2/3 majority fondly called the Super majority rules in a Democracy should help and seen to prevent a minority from eroding fundamental rights of a majority.
Therefore, one would have expected the trial Judge to consider first; the population of the delegates, number of local Governments represented, and of course, the legal value or potency of the Electoral Act in respect of total votes scored by Oborevwori and Edevbie, before arriving at such abysmal judgement.
With due respect, I am.reaffirming the fact that his judgement was nothing but a discharge of ignoble pronouncement.
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