The Supreme Court will today deliver final judgement in 13 gubernatorial appeals. This is in compliance with the provisions of the Constitution on time bound nature of political cases for which hearing and final judgments in the cases are by law to be considered and concluded within 60 days after which the matters would become statute barred.
The States awaiting final decision on the governorship election cases include Nasarawa, Delta, Ogun, Gombe and Kebbi, among others.
Governors of the states will know their fate – whether they will remain in office or not – at the end of the make or mar verdicts that would be handed down on Friday morning.
Political parties that filed cases along with their governorship candidates are the All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Labour Party (LP) and Social Democratic Party (SDP).
Deputy Director of Press and Information of the Supreme Court, Malam Alfa Ahmed, confirmed that 13 judgments on disputes over governorship elections would be delivered on Friday.
He said that the apex court has put adequate security arrangements in place to make the judgment delivery hitch-free.
Ahmed confirmed further that counsel who represented different governors during the hearing of the cases are to come to court with only two lawyers from each chamber.
He hinted that only accredited political party leaders would be permitted into the court premises to ensure crowd control and prevent security breaches.
According to him, the Department of State Service (DSS) operatives would be responsible for screening those that would access the courtroom.
He further disclosed that journalists accredited by the Supreme Court would be allowed into the courtroom and foyer of the court, depending on the number of seats allocated to them.