By Terver Akase
The persistent attempt by some political opponents to deceive the public into believing that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate for the 2027 election, Chief Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, SAN, has been barred by the Supreme Court from holding public office is not only false, but a deliberate distortion of settled law.
No amount of propaganda can alter the contents of a judgment or amend the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The Supreme Court itself has already put this issue beyond controversy.
In its judgment delivered in 2021 by Hon. Justice Mary Peter-Odili, the apex court stated in clear and unmistakable terms:
”…Indeed, the issue of qualification for holding the office of the second respondent or any other public office does not arise.”
Nothing could be clearer. The concurring judgement of any justice of the Supreme Court has the same force of law as the lead judgement in the matter.
The “second respondent” referred to in that judgment was Chief Michael Kaase Aondoakaa who was the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice during the Yar’Adua administration.
Those who continue to cite the earlier 2010 decision while deliberately suppressing the Supreme Court’s clarification in the 2021 judgment are engaging in nothing less than calculated deception. They are inviting the public to believe something the Supreme Court itself has expressly settled
The Constitution is equally unambiguous on the issue of qualification and disqualification for contesting office of Governor.
Sections 177 and 182 of the Constitution comprehensively provide the grounds for disqualification of a person seeking election as Governor. Where the Constitution expressly lists the circumstances under which a candidate may be disqualified, no person can invent additional grounds outside those constitutional provisions.
It is a settled principle of constitutional interpretation that where the Constitution has specifically provided for a matter, no extraneous consideration can be imported into it.
Even assuming, without conceding, that the issues mischievously raised by political opponents were relevant, the Constitution itself provides the applicable consequences and duration. The Constitution does not impose a perpetual ban from contesting the office of Governor in the circumstances being falsely canvassed by propagandists.
More importantly, the legal window for challenging the nomination any governorship candidate on the grounds of this qualification has long closed.
The law treats questions relating to the disqualification of candidates as pre-election matters.
By virtue of Section 285(9) of the Constitution, every pre-election suit must be filed within fourteen (14) days from the occurrence of the event complained of. That constitutional timeline is mandatory and jurisdictional. Once it expires, the courts are divested of jurisdiction to entertain such claims.
Chief Aondoakaa emerged as the duly nominated PDP governorship candidate on the 24th May 2026, received his Certificate of Return on 24th June 2026, and his name was subsequently submitted to INEC in accordance with the Electoral Act.
The constitutional period within which any person with the requisite legal standing could have instituted a pre-election challenge has long elapsed.
The Supreme Court has consistently held that constitutional timelines in pre-election matters are immutable. Once the prescribed period expires, no court possesses jurisdiction to revive the matter.
Those still making long speeches, issuing press statements or circulating social media posts about Aondoakaa’s disqualification are therefore engaged in political theatre, not legal argument.
Such individuals have no pending case.
They have no subsisting legal remedy.
They have no constitutional pathway to achieve what they could not pursue within the time prescribed by law.
The only remaining battlefield is the ballot box.
It is also important to remind those promoting this false narrative that courts decide cases based on pleadings, evidence and the law, not on propaganda manufactured for political convenience.
Benue electorate expect serious conversations about security, agriculture, education, healthcare, infrastructure, youth empowerment and economic development, not the endless recycling of legal arguments that have either been expressly resolved by the Supreme Court or have become constitutionally statute-barred.
Chief Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, SAN, remains the duly nominated and validly recognized governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party for the 2027 Benue governorship election.
His opponents should stop searching for imaginary constitutional shortcuts and begin preparing for the democratic contest ahead.
The law has spoken.
The Constitution has spoken.
The Supreme Court has spoken.
The people of Benue will speak next at the ballot box.
Dr. Terver Akase is the Media Consultant to Chief Kaase Aondoakaa, SAN
