The republic of uganda in the supreme court of uganda at kampala

SHEHU SHAGARI CASE

In Ibrahim vs. Shagari (supra) the facts were these:

The appellant was an unsuccessful candidate for the election to the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria held on 6th August 1983, at which the 1^st Respondent, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, was returned as having been duly elected to the office in accordance with the provisions of section 126(2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1979, in that he had a majority of the votes cast at the election and he had not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the States in the Federation.

The appellant presented a petition in the Federal High Court complaining about the election and the return. The substance of his complaints was that in ten states the election was conducted without the voters register; that some registered voters were not allowed to vote while people who had not been registered were allowed to do so; that under-aged children with fake voters’ cards were allowed to vote; that the officials of the Federal Electoral Commission in collusion with the police prevented the polling agents appointed by the appellant from performing their duties at the polling booths and at the counting centres; that in many polling stations no votes had been cast but that results were declared in favour of the 1 respondent; that ballot boxes were illegally stuffed with ballot papers and that there was widespread rigging and blatant electoral malpractices in the conduct of the election; that statements of results were fraudulently prepared and mutilated by the agents of 2 respondent, the Chief Federal Electoral Officer of the Federation and the Federal Electoral Commission.

On account of the aforementioned alleged irregularities and malpractices, the appellant prayed the Federal High Court to invalidate the election of the respondent by reason of non-compliance with the provisions of part II of the Electoral Act 1 982 and to order the 2nd respondent and the Federal Electoral Commission to hold a fresh presidential election throughout the Federation.

At the hearing of the petition, 23 witnesses including the appellant testified for the appellant. In its well-considered judgment, the trial court rejected the evidence of all the witnesses other than four whom it believed as reliable witnesses. The evidence of the three reliable witnesses, namely Alhaji Gambo Gubio, the Executive Secretary of the Federal Electoral Commission, (PW2), Justice Ovie-Whiskey, the Chairman of the Federal Electoral Commission (PW15) and Mr. Asuquo Nya the Returning Officer for the Federation (PW1 6), did not assist the petitioner at all. Instead of proving his case, their evidence disproved all the allegations contained in the petition. The totality of their evidence was that none of the serious irregularities and malpractices complained of ever took place in the conduct of the election; that all the election returns from all the States of the Federation from which the results of the poll was collated by the returning officer for the Federation in exhibit B were authentic; that the election was conducted scrupulously in accordance with the provisions of the Electoral Act and the Constitution and that it was free and fair.

Mohammed Kuru Goni (PW21) was the fourth reliable witness who testified that he was the Presiding Officer at the Polling Stations BO/l5/E in Maiduguri, Borno State and when he delivered the result, which was 81 votes for the political party of the appellant and 62 votes to the political party of the 1st respondent, to the Electoral Officer at the collation centre the officer asked him to falsify the result by adding figure 1 in the NPN result to read 1 62 votes. The witness said when he refused to do so, the officer ordered a policeman to beat him out of the centre. The witness left the result with the Returning Officer and ran away. The trial court found that there is no evidence the result in question was in fact falsified and it further held that, even if the said result had been so falsified, it would not affect the validity of the election since the respondent had scored 12,047,648 votes while the Petitioner had only 640,928 votes when the result of the poll was declared.

Upon the preponderance of the foregoing evidence, particularly coming from the lips of the petitioner’s witnesses, the trial court had no alternative other than to dismiss the petition. It would not surprise a reasonable tribunal that the Federal Court of appeal also dismissed the petitioners’ appeals to that Court.

An election may be invalidated upon the grounds specified by section 122 and 123 of the Nigerian Electoral Act 1982, which provide:

“122(1) an election may be questioned on any of the following grounds that is to say:-