The Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal by Mustapha Maihaja, who is currently the Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), challenging the election of Ibrahim Giadam as Yobe State governor.
The verdict of the Supreme Court has now put to rest all litigations against the election of the governor in the 2015 general elections.
Gaidam described the ruling as a victory for democracy and for the people of Yobe State. “No one but Almighty Allah (SWT) grants power, and He does so through the agency of the people, who gave us the mandate to lead our state at this juncture in our history. We are grateful to God and to the people and we will continue to justify the confidence that the people have reposed in us”, the governor said in response to the ruling.
Four justices of the Supreme Court, led by Justice Rhodes Vivour, threw away Maihaja’s appeal for lack of merit.
Maihaja had reduced the grounds of his appeal to two from the five he started with at the lower courts. His appeal at the apex court borders on primary school certificate of the governor and whether the governor was eligible to contest election in 2015 having been in office on two previous occasions.
The Supreme Court ruled that Gaidam’s first assumption of office was a result of the operation of law and not an election because he had to step in to complete a term following the death of his former boss, Governor Mamman Bello Ali.
The Apex Court also ruled that Governor Gaidam did not forge his primary school leaving certificate, as alleged.