The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Supreme Court

  • Supreme Court: Wike attacks Sagay

    Supreme Court: Wike attacks Sagay

    Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has attacked Prof Itsay Sagay (SAN) for criticising the Supreme Court judgment affirming his election.

    Wike, in a statement by his Commissioner for Information, Dr. Austin Tam-George, accused the lawyer of re-litigating a settled matter.

    The statement reads: “Prof Itse Sagay, one of the most opportunistic enablers of the corrupt regime of Mr. Rotimi Amaechi in Rivers State, seems to have found the courage to step out of his closet.

    “In a widely reported statement yesterday, Sagay launched a bitter and completely unwarranted attack on the justices of the Supreme Court judgment for affirming Nyesom Wike as the duly elected governor of Rivers Statement.

    “Prof. Sagay alleged, without any shred of proof that ‘everybody knows that people like Wike climbed into the governorship seat over dead bodies and over blood of human beings. There were no elections, they wrote the results; the evidence is there.’

    ‘’For a trained lawyer, Prof Sagay has lost his sense of irony. He criticises the legally sound and unanimous judgment of the Supreme Court, by resorting to the silly and unsubstantiated hearsay mindlessly peddled by the APC.

    “In the twilight of an unremarkable career, is Prof Sagay seeking to be the dubious originator of the sick jurisprudence of “Everybody knows”, even without evidence?

    “Is the Supreme Court no longer supreme in its judgments? Why is Sagay re-litigating a settled matter in the streets in such a disgraceful manner?

    ‘’Prof Sagay may wish to re-read the history of the people of Rivers State. We never give up our sovereignty.

    “We condemn this orchestrated campaign of calumny launched by the APC and its cowardly surrogates against Nigeria’s justice system, which is the bedrock of our evolving constitutional democracy.

    ‘’Working with other Nigerians and our sister states in the Niger Delta, the government and people of Rivers State will continue to defeat the dark political fundamentalism of the APC.

    “We call on the international community to restrain the APC from its desperate attempts to politically dominate our people and plunder the resources of our land.”

  • Supreme Court ruling can bring about self-help, says Akwa Ibom APC

    The Akwa Ibom State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said the Supreme Court failed it by affirming the election of Governor Udom Emmanuel.

    It regretted the Supreme Court’s judgment on the 2015 election of Governor Emmanuel, stating that the decision is capable of eroding public confidence in the judiciary.

    Though the Supreme Court will give reasons why it upheld Udom’s election today, the APC raised some posers, which it claimed point to the possibilities that the verdict could have been influenced.

    Emmanuel was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), while the APC presented Obong Umana Okon Umana as its candidate.

    The Chairman of the party, Dr. Amadu Attai, in a statement in Abuja yesterday, said the criticisms and condemnations that trailed the judgment by lawyers, laymen and political analysts, “pointed to such compromising and questionable circumstances and context surrounding the ruling that should not be swept under the carpet.”

    Attai, while noting that certain events that happened before, during and after the judgment suggest that some powerful  forces in the state had foreknowledge of the outcome of the judgment, stated that such issues continue to generate negative reactions “about the integrity of the apex court and the sanctity of its judgments.”

    He said: “In the light of the foregoing, the confidence of Nigerians in the Supreme Court has been badly eroded. This is reflected in the spate of attacks on Supreme Court judgments. Such dangerous lack of confidence in the sanctity of judgments by the Supreme Court and in its integrity could force Nigerians to resort to self-help, particularly as the mass killings in Akwa Ibom and Rivers states during the elections have been swept under the carpet by the Supreme Court judgments.

    “Another danger lurking in these judgments is that they constitute precedents for future adjudication of election cases, in which case the judgments might be seen as the legitimisation of electoral violence..”

    He called on President Muhammadu Buhari to stem what he called the decay in the judiciary, which is expected to be the bastion of justice, adding that “the leadership of the country and indeed Nigerians should not sit and watch the Judiciary collapse.

    ‘’We call on the President to arrest the drift in the third arm of government by probing the rot in the Supreme Court.’’

  • ‘Wike climbed into the governorship seat over dead bodies’

    ‘Wike climbed into the governorship seat over dead bodies’

    The Head of Presidential Anti-corruption Committee, Prof Itse Sagay, has again voiced his concern over some recent rulings of the Supreme Court on election petitions, particularly those held in Rivers and Akwa Ibom states.
    Sagay, who spoke with newsmen at the Olu Palace, Warri on Saturday, warned that the rulings, which allow people who were declared winners without elections in spite of copious evidences of irregularities and heavy human and material casualties, set a dangerous precedent in the history of elections.
    “The judgements are very perverse, particularly relating to Akwa Ibom and Rivers. Everybody knows that there were no elections in those two states.
    “Everybody knows that people like Wike climbed into the governorship seat over dead bodies and over bloods of human beings. There were no elections, they wrote the results; the evidence is there,” he said.
    According to Sagay, what the Supreme Court has done is to set the clock of electoral excellence and fairness and credibility back by, ” I do not want to say a thousand years, but certainly it is taking us back to where we were before Jega came in and sanitize the system.”
    “We are going to have primitive and barbaric electoral culture; ‘kill as much as you can, destroy as much as you can, create as much catastrophe, but if you can find yourself on that seat, you are confirmed, regardless of the means by which you got there’.
    “That is a very major setback to democracy and the rule of law,” he said.
    Similarly, the erudite constitutional lawyer also flayed the present crop of Supreme Court judges, insisting that they have degraded the court from decades ago when the Nigerian Supreme Court was ranked among the best in the world.
    “I remember 15, 20 years ago, we had a Supreme Court that is the best in the world – better than the one you have in the US. That was when you had Justices (Kayode) Eso, (Andrew) Obaseki, Anyagolou, (Adolphous) Karibe-Whyte, Bello and so on. Those people brought a culture to the Supreme Court and most of us thought when they left the culture would remain but it hasn’t.
    “New people have come, much younger people, and they have different approach to life because I don’t understand why you would have law, which is in conflict with justice and you prefer to apply that law – technical law, which is in conflict with justice. As we have seen in the case of Akwa Ibom and Rivers and a few other cases.
    “So I think their orientations are different. I think the older ones who are gone believed that justice was number one. In such a case, you ask where does the justice lies? They now interpreted the law in line with justice.
    “But now what we have is a group of people in the Supreme Court, who do not care where their legal interpretation is leading them. Once you have a divorce between law and justice, the whole legal system will break down and that is what has happened,” he added.
    Prof Sagay has also called for disciplinary actions against Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) and other senior lawyers who are seen to be encouraging corrupt politicians and looters of the nation’s treasury.
    He said, “There are a group of senior lawyers who have totally departed from anything that the calling of the law profession requires; they have thrown in their lots with the looters and have become, I won’t call them fellow looters, but definitely, they have started enjoying and sharing in the proceeds of crimes of these looters and because of that they are absolutely now against the anti-corruption law.
    “There is need to have these Senior Advocates thoroughly disciplined and if they would not accept discipline, they need to be removed from the profession before they bring more disgrace to the profession and at the same time drag this country down economically.”

  • Why Isiaka’s petition failed – Supreme Court

    The Supreme Court on Friday explained why it dismissed the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in last governorship election in Ogun State, Adegboyega Isiaka.

    The apex court held that Isiaka failed to prove the allegations that the conduct of the election won by the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Ibikunle Amosun, did not comply with the Electoral Act and was marred by malpractices.

    Justice Kumai Akaahs, who read the led judgment of a seven-man panel headed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, held that the tribunal and the Court of Appeal, Ibadan, were right to upheld Amosu’s election.

    Justice Akaah said the PDP candidate was unable to give sufficient evidence to substantiate his allegation that elections in nine local government areas in the state – Ifo, Abeokuta-North, Abeokuta South, Odeda, Ewekoro, Obafemi-Owode, Ado/Odo/Ota, Sagamu and Remo- North were marred by irregularities, malpractices and non-compliance with election guidelines.

    He held that the appeal was bound to fail because of inconsistencies in the report of a team that inspected electoral materials tendered by the appellants’ star witness and the inadmissibility of the said document.

    The judge further held that to prove the improper conduct of the election in nine local government areas which had 1,672 polling units, the appellants only called nine witnesses out whom only two were eyewitnesses to what transpired in only about 12 polling units.

     

  • Lawyer wants experts to handle election petition cases

    Lawyer wants experts to handle election petition cases

    An Abuja-based Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr Solo Akuma, has advocated the handling of election petitions by experts in that field of law.

    Akuma told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday that experts handling the cases would facilitate quick dispensation of justice.

    The senior advocate reasoned that election petitions were not the conventional matters that were dealt with on a daily basis by the courts.

    “Election petition cases are special areas of law. It is not every legal practitioner that can do it well.

    “It is left for litigants that want to embark on election petition to contact a lawyer that is vast in that area to handle their cases,’’ he said.

    He said that the decision of the Court of Appeals in the country on election petitions were “a clear demonstration of justice in the judiciary’’.

    In the same vein, Mr Stan Ofoma, another lawyer, told NAN that the judiciary rendered justice to the masses without fear, favour, affliction or ill-will.

    Ofoma said that court justice should be well appreciated by the ordinary man in the street and from the standpoint of the law.

    He said that the judiciary had been in the eye-of the-storm in recent times, and attributed it to political influences.

    “Nevertheless, the judiciary has been in the forefront of late, we hear of judgments here and there every day; they give judgment on the same issue, even though it is not the same case.

    “Every other day we hear that this court has given judgment on one issue, our brother court is giving a different judgment on the same issue even though it is not the same particulars.

    “It is a cause for concern.’’

    He, however, expressed optimism that in 2016 both the bench and the bar would render its duties sacredly to the society.

    “I want to believe that this year, God willing, the judiciary both the bench and the bar will realise our sacred duties to ourselves as individuals and to the society.”

  • Supreme Court upholds Ishaku’s election

    Supreme Court upholds Ishaku’s election

    The Supreme Court has upheld the election of Darius Dickson Ishaku of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)  as governor of Taraba State.

    The court, in a unanimous judgment by a seven-man panel, led by Justice Ibrahim Galadima, dismissed the appeal by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hajia Aisha Jumai Al-Hassan for lacking in merit.

    Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour, who read the lead judgment, upheld the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which affirmed Ishaku’s election.

    Al-Hassan (now Minister of Women Affairs) challenged the return of  Ishaku as winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at the election tribunal on the grounds that he was not validly sponsored by his party, following his non-qualification.

    Al-Hassan won at the tribunal, which voided Ishaku’s election and ordered INEC to issue her a certificate of return. But her victory was overturned by the Court of Appeal, Abuja, a decision she appealed to the Supreme Court.

    Yesterday, the court took arguments from parties and gave its judgment around 1:30 pm, but reserved its reasons to February 22.

    Justice Rhodes-Vivour declared: “There is no merit in this appeal. The judgment of the lower court is affirmed. The election of D.D. Ishaku is upheld. I shall give reasons for this judgment on February 22, 2016.”

    The other six justices agreed with the lead judgment, the consequential orders and the promise to provide reasons for the decision at a later date.

    The court said the judgment covered six other appeals and cross appeals by parties against the judgment of the Court of Appeal on December 31, 2015.

    Parties in the appeals include Al-Hassan, APC, Ishaku, PDP and INEC.

    Earlier, lawyers to parties highlighted the issues canvassed in their briefs of argument.

    Lawyer to Al-hassan, Abiodun Owonikoko (SAN), who led Mahmud Magaji (SAN) drew a distinction between his client’s case and the two cases, in relation to the governorship disputes in Benue and Zamfara states, earlier decided by the court.

    In the cases identified as Tarzoor vs Ortom and Shinkafi vs Yari, the Supreme Court held that a non-member of a party, who also was not a candidate in the party’s primary election, lacked the locus (the legal right) to query the conduct of the primary and its outcome as it relates to qualification of the candidate.

    Owonikoko argued that his client’s case was different in the sense that his client was contesting Ishaku’s  qualification to stand for election on the grounds of his party’s non-compliance with sections 177(1) (C) of the Constitution and 87(4) of the Electoral Act.

    “In the two cases decided by this court, primaries were held and INEC confirmed that fact. But, in this case, there was no primary, which is the requirement for sponsorship/qualification to contest election to the office of a governor.

    “We are not anchoring our contest of the 1st respondent’s qualification on the propriety of the primary as required under the Electoral Act. Our case is about the constitutional qualification of the 1st respondent and improper conduct of primary,” Owonikoko said.

    He added that in this case, INEC’s officials testified and presented a report  that the PDP did not hold a valid primary as it purported to have held its governorship primary at the party’s headquarters in Abuja in the absence of INEC’s monitors, and in violation of the Electoral Act that such primaries must be held in the state capital.

    “If they had conducted a primary, we have no locus to challenge its outcome and the candidacy of the 1st respondent,” Owonikoko added and urged the court to uphold his client’s appeal.

    Ishaku’s lawyer Kanu Agabi (SAN) urged the court to dismiss the appeal by Al-Hassan. He  noted that the lower court, relying on past decisions of the Supreme Court, held that the appellants are bound by their pleadings, having averred, in some paragraphs of their petition, that the 1st respondent was a candidate of the PDP and was sponsored by the party for the election.

    Agabi also argued that there was no distinction between the case and those of SC/907/2015: Shinkafi vs Yari and Tarzoor vs Ortom.

    PDP’s lawyer Solo Akuma (SAN) stated that the 1st respondent was PDP’s candidate  and that the party had  never denied he was its candidate.

    He noted that the tribunal found that the PDP actually held a primary, but in Abuja and not at the state capital.

    “The court below also found that a primary was held and that the appellants, not being a member of the PDP lacked no locus to challenge the manner of the conduct of the primary,” Akumma said.

    He argued that the distinction being made by the appellants was irrevant “because they cannot distinguish the cases. What happened in Ortom’s case was more brazen. He was in PDP on Friday and, on Saturday he became APC’s candidate,” he added and urged the court to dismiss the appeal.

    INEC’s lawyer Joseph Daudu (SAN) also argued in a similar vein and prayed the court to dismiss the appeal by Al-Hassan.

    After listening to the lawyers, the court rose for about one and half hours. It resumed proceedings at 1:30 to announce its verdict.

     

  • Supreme Court judgement and Orji’s vindication

    The recent Supreme Court judgment that affirmed the election of Victor Okezie Ikpeazu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the duly elected governor of Abia State has shamed the enemies and restored peace in the state. Victors in the judgment are the Nigerian judiciary, Governor Ikpeazu, Abia people and Ikpeazu’s predecessor and senator representing Abia Central zone, Senator Theodore Ahamefula Orji. The latter had stood his ground alongside the party leadership in the state to ensure that governor emerged from the Abia South in 2015.

    In the face of the coordinated propaganda, attack and pressure, the Nigerian judiciary especially the Supreme Court justices refused to be cowed or compromised in the matter. Ikpeazu had continued undaunted with his government’s massive infrastructural development even when the Appeal Court declared his main rival in the election, Alex Otti of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), winner of the election.

    Ahead of the 2015 governorship poll in Abia State, almost all the governorship aspirants had desperately wanted to fly the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state. Their desperations were hinged on the fact that PDP is the dominant party and with Governor Orji’s sterling performance in the office coupled with his liberation of the state from the grip of the desperate and notorious godfather in the state, that the people will vote massively for the party.

    In their bid to confuse and convince the people, some of the aspirants fabricated all sorts of lies which include that they have been endorsed by Governor Orji; that they have agreement with Governor Orji brokered by the presidency and other lies. While these aspirants engaged in all these political subterfuge to whip up sentiment, create undue tension, Orji had maintained that at the appropriate time the party leadership in the state would meet, decide and conduct primaries in line with party’s constitution. He had further emphasized and advised the party leadership that their choice of his possible successor should be in line with principles of equity, fairness, and everlasting peace in the state.

    When the party leadership decided that Abia South zone mainly of Ngwa people that had not produced governor in the state since its creation would produce the next governor, Orji and other party stakeholders applauded and backed the decision. Orji personally appealed to other aspirants including Otti who hails from Arochukwu in Abia North zone to support the Abia South to produce the governor.

    Orji’s argument was hinged on the need to ensure the zoning of the governor seat among the three senatorial zones in the state of which Abia North and Central had produced governors for eight years each. While majority of the aspirants accepted the logic, the likes of Otti and his co-travellers in a desperate bid to grab power jumped into APGA with their huge resources where they dislodged the initial APGA members in the state led by Chief Reagan Ufomba. The APGA governorship ticket in the state was quickly handed over to Otti by the APGA national leadership which Ufomba would later accuse of compromise.

    With Ikpeazu’s emergence as the PDP governorship candidate in the state in line with the state PDP’s zoning principles, Otti and his cohorts not only became upset, they came up with all kinds of intrigues and scheming to decieve the public and paint Ikpeazu, Orji and PDP in bad light. Embers of war were fanned with impunity in the state during electioneering campaigns. Otti and his supporters bragged of their connections at the seat of power, Aso Rock Villa. Abia which was one of the most peaceful states in the country before the polls, suddenly became a flash point state. APGA supporters including internet warriors and hatchet writers called Orji, Ikpeazu, and others names, threatening to pull down the state if Otti did not win the election.

    In the face all these grandstanding and provocation by APGA’s candidate and its supporters in the state, Governor Orji remained unperturbed and strongly supported Ikpeazu and the PDP. After the National Assembly elections, PDP won all the senatorial and House of Representatives seats in the state with the exception of Aba North/South Federal Constituency that was won by APGA. The result was a clear indication that APGA was not on ground in the state, despite all the media hype and noise about its potency or followership strength in the state.

    During the governorship election, APGA and its supporters allegedly induced crisis, probably to pave way for them to rig the election or engender declaration of state of emergency in the state. But Governor Orji who doubled as chief security of the state applied political sagacity to handle the situation. Ikpeazu was declared the winner of the election to disappointment of Otti and cohorts.

    Otti rebuffed all entreaties from prominent personalities within and outside the state to sheathe the sword and embrace Ikpeazu’s government in interest of peace. Otti went to court to challenge Ikpeazu’s victory. Immediately Otti got temporary victory at the Court of Appeal which affirmed him the winner of the election, he carried himself around like a governor already.

    At this point, some men and women of little faith and character in the state who were supportive of Ikpeazu before began to shift loyalty to Otti, with perhaps confidence that he will be declared governor by the Supreme Court. Majority of them had worked and benefitted immensely from the government of Senator Orji and were part of the decision-making process that enthroned Ikpeazu as the party candidate. They threw caution into wind in a bid to please Otti, thinking that Ikpeazu had no chance in Supreme Court. They had sharpened their swords to deal with Senator Orji by fabricating all sorts of lies to drag his name and that of his family members in the mud.

    While the people awaited the Supreme Court verdict, the political atmosphere in the state was tensed like never before. There was uncertainty, but Senator Orji was never moved. Having fought such electoral battles in the past and having absolute confidence in judiciary, Orji believed that the truth would prevail at last and he would be vindicated.

    With the Supreme Court’s verdict upholding the election of Ikpeazu, Senator Orji has been finally vindicated and would be surely remembered for standing on the path of truth, equity, fairness and justice in power sharing in Abia State when it mattered most.

     

    • Omenegor, a system analyst wrote from Toronto Canada.
  • Guber poll: APC waiting for court’s explanation on rulings – Oyegun

    Guber poll: APC waiting for court’s explanation on rulings – Oyegun

    The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, said on Thursday that the party is waiting for the Supreme Court to give reasons for its judgments in the governorship election cases in Akwa Ibom and Rivers States before knowing the way forward.

    Speaking when he received the party delegation from Akwa Ibom led by the governorship candidate, Umana Umana, Oyegun said the party will meet at a later date to fashion the way forward.

    “What is paramount is how to move forward on the situation that confronts us. We should reach conclusions that will guide us as a party in the months ahead,” he said.

    In his remarks, the governorship candidate, expressed shock at the Supreme Court judgment despite what he described as “overwhelming evidence” presented before the apex court confirming election fraud and violence perpetrated by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    He said both local and international observers, including the United States Embassy, the European Union and the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) said the Akwa Ibom elections were marred by widespread irregularities and violence.

    He said: “Indeed we are not happy in Akwa Ibom State with the situation. Our people were not allowed to vote. It was not just a case of card readers, even the voters register proved clear cases of over voting. The EU, TMG and other international observer groups issued statements condemning the elections

    “Against this background, we thought if we approach the court, we will get justice. We submitted over 350 exhibits including video proving election violence and malpractices.

    “It was a case of double jeopardy. During the election our people were killed. We went to court and we could not get justice.”

     

     

  • Taraba: Supreme Court upholds Ishaku’s election

    Taraba: Supreme Court upholds Ishaku’s election

    The Supreme Court has upheld the election of Darius Dickson Ishaku of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)  as governor of Taraba State.
    The court, in a unanimous judgment by a seven-man panel, led by Ibrahim Galadima, dismissed the appeal by the candidate of the All Proessives Congress (APC), Hajia Aisha Jumai Al-Hassan on the ground that it lacked merit.
    Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour, who read the lead judgment, upheld the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which affirmed Ishaku’s election.
    Al-Hassan (now Minister of Women Affairs) challenged the return of  Ishaku as winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at the election tribunal.
    Al-Hassan won at the tribunal, but her victory was overturned by the Court of Appeal, Abuja, a decision she appealed to the Supreme Court.
    This morning, the court took arguments from parties to the appeal and gave its judgment around 1:30pm, but reserved its reasons to February 22.

  • Taraba gov dispute: Supreme Court judgment for 1:30pm

    The Supreme Court is expected to deliver judgment at 1:30pm today (Thursday)  in the Taraba State governorship dispute.
    The candidate of the All Progressives Party (PDP) in the last election, Hajia Aisha Jumai Al-Hassan (now Minister of Women Affairs) is challenging the return of Darius Ishaku of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
    Al-Hassan won at the tribunal, but her victory was overturned by the Court of Appeal, Abuja, a decision she appealed to the Supreme Court.
    On Thursday  morning, a seven-man bench, led by Justice Ibrahim Galadima took arguments from parties on the appeal and reserved decision till 1:30pm