October 28, (THEWILL) – For the second time in a month, the courts have given conflicting judgement on the conduct of local government elections in the country. The first one happened in Rivers State ahead of the October 5, 2024 scheduled poll. A few days to the conduct of the election, two Judges, one from the Rivers State High Court and the other from a Federal High Court in Abuja, gave rulings to countermand each other.
The Federal High Court Judge, Peter Lifu, even ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to deny the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, RSIEC, the voter register. Also he ordered the police and the Department of State Security not to provide security for the poll.
Undeterred, Governor Siminalayi Fubara went ahead to conduct the poll. He cited a judgement of the State High Court supporting the conduct of the poll and judgment of the Supreme Court, which directed that democratically-elected officials must govern all the local governments in the country.
The police actually stayed away and the state had to engage the services of the National Security and Civil Defence Corps alongside local vigilantes to ensure the protection and safety of voters. The election was held in a largely peaceful atmosphere and the results since declared.
Last week, a similar story played out over the conduct of a poll in Kano. A Federal High Court in Kano stopped the local government election in that state from being held. Like what happed in Rivers State, the court ordered the police not to provide security for the polls.
According to Justice Simon Amobeda of the Federal High Court in Kano who barred the Kano State Independent Electoral Commission, KANSIEC, from conducting the council election, the commission was illegally constituted. The court further restrained security agencies, including the Police, DSS and NSCDC from providing security for the poll.
Ruling on a lawsuit brought before the court by the All Progressives Congress, APC, which claimed that KANSIEC’s chairman and five commissioners were ineligible to oversee an impartial election due to their affiliation with the NNPP, the court ruled that KANSIEC’s leadership lacked the necessary neutrality for conducting a fair election.
Determined to go ahead with the poll, KANISEC approached the State High Court with a counter suit. Arguing that he would not support any attempt to truncate the process of conducting the poll, Justice Sanusi Ma’aji of the State High Court, in a ruling on Friday, held that the provisions of the Constitution empower KANSIEC to conduct, supervise and hold local government elections across the 44 LGAs in the State.
The court ordered security agencies to protect life and property during the election, scheduled for Saturday.
In a new twist on Friday, the same Justice Simon Amobeda sacked all 44 Chairmanship and councillorship candidates on the platform of the governing NNPP for Saturday’s poll. The ruling followed a suit filed by Engineer Muhammad Babayo and a faction of the NNPP against the party’s leadership.
Justice Amobeda ruled that the KANSIEC should accept a new list of candidates submitted by the faction led by the recognised State Chairman, Dalhatu Shehu Usman, in accordance with the party’s constitution.
“The defendant is hereby restrained from releasing the voters register for the second defendant to conduct the proposed election on 26th October 2024,” the judge declared. He further instructed that KANSIEC must recognise the list of candidates submitted by the plaintiffs.
Defiant, KANSIEC on Friday announced a review of the list of political parties cleared to participate in the local government election, armed with the latest ruling of the State High Court.
Chairman of the commission, Prof Sani Malumfashi, announced NNPP, ZLP, Accord Party, NRM, AAC, ACORD, APM, ADC and AA as the parties partaking in the poll. Clearly, the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, boycotted the poll.
Still, Malumfashi said the poll would hold as planned, as the commission had concluded preparations to conduct a hitch-free exercise.
The Kano State Government then announced a movement restriction across the state ahead of the election.
The Emir of Kano, Mohammed Sanusi II, waded in by calling on the people to come out and participate in the poll peacefully.
Obviously, politicians and judges appear determined to outdo one another in the latest display of right over the conduct of LGA poll in Kano. When the government and the courts do battle, who will the people run to? If this ding-dong affair persists, a time will come when the combatants will lose respect in the court of the people. That would be a sad development, indeed.
