IRIKEFE, J.S.C. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): If ever an appeal was lacking in merit, this was it.
The petitioner, now appellant, filed this petition to challenge the return of the 1st respondent herein. The petition was based on a catalogue of electoral malpractices, which, in the argument of his counsel, should lead to a nullification of the election. In the same breath, the petitioner sought to be elected on the same evidence. This is clearly an impossible feat. Having said this, how did the petitioner prove his averments? Most of the witnesses called by him had no direct testimony to offer and the only one who produced documentary proof was the 3rd respondent, the returning officer, himself an official of the Federal Electoral Commission. This was the only witness who produced evidence upon which the return in this election was made. Without the evidence of this witness, the position in this case would be that no return had been made till today. In my view, to prove falsifica…