- It is scandalous judicial debacle — NNPP
- The judiciary in #Nigeria is crooked — Odinkalu
Senior Advocate of Nigeria and rights crusader, Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, has revealed that despite the general belief that the Kano State Gubernatorial Election Petitions Tribunal, which sat at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, nullified the election of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano State, the majority judgement of the Court upheld his appeal and granted all the reliefs sought by the governor.
Speaking last night on Arise News Primetime, Falana said he was surprised when he read a copy of the judgement, to see that the majority judgement set aside the judgement of the lower tribunal and awarded cost in favour of the governor.
“You will be surprised if I show you the judgement. To my utter dismay the majority judgement of the Court of Appeal in Kano upheld the Appeal, set aside the judgement of the lower court and awarded cost in favour of the governor that was removed by the lower Tribunal. There are contradictions which the court can no longer explain, but which is likely to be taken up by the Supreme Court.
Falana described the development as scandalous to the integrity of the judiciary. He also faulted the decision of the court to punish millions of voters for the mistake committed by INEC officials.
“Contrary to the impression that has been given out there, the majority judgement of the Court of Appeal has confirmed that the judgement of the lower court was wrong, and has set it aside in writing, upheld the Appeal and granted all the reliefs sought by Governor Abba. So, you ask yourself, what’s going on?’’
Likewise, Law teacher and ex-Chair of the National Human Rights Commission, Chidi Odinkalu in a tweet said:” When we say the judiciary in #Nigeria is crooked, ppl wonder how so. Look: the Court of Appeal in Kano governorship case resolved all the issues “in favour of the appellant & against the 1st Respondent.” Yet it found the appeal lacking in merit & liable to be dismissed. Explain!”
On its part, the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) said the controversy trailing the judgment is a “scandalous judicial debacle.”
The Certified True Copy of the judgment, which was made public on Tuesday, contradicted what was read at the Court of Appeal Court last Friday
In an appearance on Arise TV’s The Morning Show on Wednesday , the spokesperson for the NNPP, Ladipo Johnson, said the matter would ultimately be resolved by the Supreme Court.
He acknowledged that there are discrepancies between the information that was read out last Friday and the contents of the official CTC report.
“It is very unfortunate that we have come to this low state as a country regarding the judiciary. I am a legal practitioner, and it hurts me; it pains the heart that this is the sort of situation that we find ourselves in.
“You just have a 14-day window to lodge your appeal at the Supreme Court, so when you deliver judgment on Friday and you don’t give the CTC to counsel till some five days later, it really makes no sense,” Johnson said.
The PUNCH reports that the verdict of the court last Friday indicated that the Appeal Court upheld the decision of the petitions tribunal sacking Governor Abba Yusuf.
However, confusion arose on Tuesday when the CTC of the court judgment on the state governorship election surfaced, four days after the judgment had been delivered.
Our correspondent obtained a copy of the CTC, shedding light on a potential mix-up in the conclusions.
The governor, who was sacked by the state governorship election petition tribunal, is the appellant at the Court of Appeal
The All Progressives Congress is the first respondent, the Independent National Electoral Commission is the second respondent, and the NNPP is the third respondent.
Below are the last five contradictory paragraphs of the CTC:
“In the circumstances, I resolve all the issues in favour of the appellant (Abba Yusuf) and against the first respondent (APC).
Then it said, “I will conclude by stating that the live issues in this appeal are hereby resolved in favour of the 1st respondent (APC) and against the appellant (Governor Abba Yusuf)”.
“Therefore, I find no merit in this appeal (which was filed by Yusuf) which is liable to be and is hereby dismissed.”
“The judgment of the tribunal in Petition No.: EPT/KN/GOV/01/2023 between: AL PROGRESSIVES CONGRESS (APC) v. INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION & 2 ORS. delivered on the 20th day of September, 2023 is hereby set aside.”
“The sum of N1,000,000.00 (one million naira only) is hereby awarded as costs in favour of the appellant(Abba Yusuf) and against the 1st respondent(APC).”
The NNPP spokesperson lamented, saying, “How is it that in the CTC signed by the judges, you have that conclusion? Were they two different judgments typed? Leave the facts and the law to the Supreme Court; what we are saying is that the optics are bad, and you cannot stop anyone from saying they have no confidence in the judiciary.
“When the Court of Appeal comes out with that, you begin to know that in this modern day of computer produced document, something must have been there. Was it cancelled? Was part of it removed? Are they going to tell us it’s a clerical error? There is something called a slip rule in law where you can recall your judgment if there is a small error. This is not a small error.
“The Court of Appeal must let Nigerians know how that happened and how they couldn’t get us a CTC for about four days.”
He added, “If we have an unbiased panel, then justice will be done for the millions of people in Kano who do not understand these technicalities. All they know is that they are being cheated.”
The PUNCH had earlier reported that the three-member panel of the court determined that Yusuf was not on his political party’s membership list.
It stated that a party must hold the names of its registered members in both hard and soft copies, citing a clause of the Electoral Act.
Addressing the issue, Johnson said, “A man who is not a member, can he have a membership card? But these are all questions for the lawyers at the Supreme Court to treat.”
