US embassy cable - 03ABUJA1248

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 001248 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/21/2013 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, KDEM, PINR, NI 
SUBJECT: NIGERIA: TRIBUNALS UPDATE 
 
REF: A. A) ABUJA 1049 
     B. B) ABUJA 934 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY AMBASSADOR HOWARD F. JETER; REASON: 1.5 (B) and 
(D). 
 
 
1. (C) Begin Summary: State election tribunals have been 
rendering decisions for one month.  Three elections have been 
overturned, but the majority of the petitions have been 
thrown out on procedural grounds.  The proclivity of the 
tribunals to avoid the substantive merits of many of these 
cases has hurt the image of the judiciary.  Opposition 
politicians are also pointing to this phenomenon as evidence 
that the tribunals are being unduly affected by the 
government and ruling party.  End Summary 
 
 
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The Tribunals make some decisions 
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2. (U) Election tribunals, mandated in the 36 states to hear 
grievances arising from the National Assembly and 
gubernatorial elections in April, began proceedings the week 
prior to the Presidential Inauguration on May 29.  Decisions 
have been coming in since early June.  To date, decisions 
have been publicized in more than 40 cases in 24 states and 
the Federal Capital Territory.  (NOTE: After the state 
tribunal issues a verdict, the aggrieved parties can appeal 
to the Federal Court of Appeals and later to the Supreme 
Court. END NOTE) 
 
 
3. (U) As reported in reftel B, petitions were filed in over 
20 gubernatorial and 60 National Assembly elections.  Three 
election results have been overturned, 41 cases have been 
dismissed, and petitions have been withdrawn in at least 
seven cases. 
 
 
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Exercising their authority 
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4. (U) Despite the widespread reports of electoral 
irregularities, particularly in the South-South and 
Southeast, only three elections have been overturned by the 
tribunals.  The Edo State tribunal overturned a House of 
Representatives election in favor of the ANPP candidate 
(reftel A).  In Borno State, the tribunal overturned the 
Northern Senatorial district election in favor of another 
ANPP candidate.  The Borno tribunal accepted evidence that 
elections were not held at four polling units, and that the 
PDP candidate, Mohammed Sanusi Daggash, disrupted the 
election process by removing ballot boxes and instigating the 
arrest of several INEC officials.  In Abuja, a House of 
Representatives election was overturned in favor of the ANPP 
after an INEC official admitted to a miscount that provided 
the PDP candidate a slim victory.  The PDP candidate, Alhaji 
Baba Takwa, died last month of cirrhosis of the liver. 
 
 
5. (U) In the other Abuja House election, the tribunal 
ordered INEC to conduct a new election in two polling units 
where elections had not taken place in April.  INEC was given 
two weeks from June 25 to provide results for these areas. 
This new election has not yet taken place. 
 
 
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Thrown out on procedural grounds 
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6. (U) For the majority of tribunal decisions, substantive 
evidence was not heard because the cases were dismissed due 
to alleged procedural flaws in the petitions.  A number of 
reasons have been given for dismissing petitions.  In Abia 
State, petitions contesting the gubernatorial election were 
discarded for not mentioning the various candidates for 
deputy governor.  In Adamawa and Imo States, petitions were 
dismissed for not listing INEC as a defendant.  Conversely, 
the Delta State tribunal dismissed a gubernatorial petition 
for listing INEC as a defendant.  Nine cases in seven states 
were thrown out because the petitioner either failed to sign 
the petition or failed to list all the candidates for that 
particular election and their respective results in the 
election.  In Akwa Ibom, a petition was rejected because the 
Tribunal Secretary did not sign a receipt of the petition. 
 
 
7. (U) Other reasons for rejecting petitions have been 
failing to appear before the tribunal and failure to respond 
to a counter-affidavit on time.  Even though the established 
rules of the tribunal state that either a candidate or his 
party may petition the court, a petition regarding the 
gubernatorial election in Ekiti State was thrown out because 
the party apparently did not have the candidate,s consent to 
contest the election. 
 
 
8. (U) In Imo State, four different opposition parties filed 
petitions regarding the gubernatorial election.  All were 
rejected: one for not being timely filed, one for not listing 
INEC as a defendant, one for not listing the other candidates 
and their results, and one for being incompetent and 
defective (NOTE: This latter reason is the formal reason 
listed for most rejections, whether based on substantive or 
procedural grounds. END NOTE). 
 
 
9. (U) In cases where the tribunals have heard evidence, 
greater weight seems to have been given the testimony of IENC 
and government officials.  The testimony of opposition 
figures has been afforded the same evidentiary stature.  The 
Plateau State tribunal is a prime example.  The incumbent PDP 
governor was declared the winner of the election and the 
governor,s personal assistant gave his assurance in court 
that INEC had been fair during the election, a statement 
sufficient to counter the opposition,s witnesses.  In 
multiple states the State Electoral Chairman,s testimony and 
assurance that INEC acted properly have been enough to sway 
the court.  In cases where INEC or the government has refused 
to respond to a summons, the unresponsiveness has been 
rewarded by the assumption that, if no documentation was 
produced, there was nothing to hide.  The cases have been 
thrown out for lack of evidence, regardless of documentation 
provided by the petitioner. 
 
 
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Possible subversion 
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10. (U) Critics have pointed to the manner in which the 
tribunals are financed and supported as a means to exert 
influence over the judges.  Each state tribunal is supposed 
to be constituted by judges from out of state, thus the 
receiving state must provide lodging and other support for 
these jurists.  Opposition figures complain that governors 
who pay to accommodate the judges thus are able to exert 
influence over the judges, decisions.  (NOTE: In almost 
every instance, judges have been housed in State Government 
lodges.  It is fitting and inevitable that government would 
pay tribunal expenses.  There is no other entity that would 
foot the bills.  However, because of the strong personal 
control governors have over state funds and official 
premises, many people believe that in extending assistance to 
the tribunals, the governors also gained access and perhaps a 
degree of control over the judges. END NOTE) 
 
 
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COMMENT 
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12. (C) Many Nigerians have questioned the independence and 
integrity of the tribunals.  Immediately after the elections, 
the general consensus was that aggrieved parties should 
follow the constitutionally mandated electoral complaint 
procedure.  Appropriately, domestic observers and the 
international community called on the tribunals to be 
impartial and follow the rule of law so that the judicial 
process could resolve as many electoral irregularities as 
possible.  Justice and fairness required no less.  However, a 
high percentage of cases have been dismissed because of 
procedural flaws.  These incidences of dismissal have served 
to confirm the suspicions of opposition politicians that the 
tribunals were not interested in doing justice or hearing the 
merits of their complaints.  Now many of these cases will go 
into the federal court system to determine if dismissals were 
proper.  It would be a positive development for electoral 
jurisprudence, and politics in general, if the federal court 
system determined that at least some cases should be heard on 
their merits.  However, by the time the federal courts hear 
these cases, it will be August, most likely September, when a 
full four months would have elapsed since the controversial 
elections. 
JETER 
JETER