Anambra North Senatorial dispute: Supreme Court dismisses Emordi’s appeal

Posted by admin Anambra, Elections 2011, State News, Sunny Chris Okenwa Saturday, April 16th, 2011

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed an appeal filed by Senator Joy Emordi challenging the decision of the Enugu Division of the Court of Appeal which voided her election as a senator and declared Alphonsus Igbeke as the senator for Anambra North Senatorial District.

In a judgment delivered by Justice Afolabi Fabiyi, the apex court took the view that the appeal bothered on election petition for which it had no jurisdiction to intervene.

The court said that it had no jurisdiction to sit on a judgment of the Court of Appeal in an election matter because the Court of Appeal was the final court in dispute emanating from the election into the National Assembly.

In dismissing the appeal, the court upheld the preliminary objection filed by Igbeke asking it to dismiss the appeal by Emordi for lacking in merit.

Fabiyi cited section 246 (3) of the 1999 Constitution, which provided that the decisions of the Court of Appeal in respect of appeals arising from election petitions shall be final.

He said that the word ‘shall’ as used in section 246 (3) denoted obligation or a command and did not leave the Supreme Court with any discretion to usurp the jurisdiction of the Appeal Court.

He said: “The court is statutory and cannot for the sake of doing justice confer on itself a jurisdiction where none is given to it by the constitution or by any statute.

“It is clear to me that the decision of the court below entered on 12th May, 2010 is final and not subject to appeal to this court.”

Emordi and Igbeke were among the candidates, who contested the National Assembly election for Anambra State North Senatorial District conducted on April 28, 2007.

INEC returned Emordi as the winner of the election. Her return was challenged at the Election Petition Tribunal in Awka by Igbeke and Jessie Balonwu. The tribunal dismissed both petitions. However, the two petitioners filed separate appeals at the Enugu Division of the Court of Appeal.

While the Appeal Court dismissed the appeal by Balonwu, the same court though composed of different justices upheld the appeal by Igbeke and reversed the judgment of the tribunal.

Although the Court of Appeal was the final court in election petition arising from National Assembly election, Emordi filed the instant appeal to the Supreme Court.wp_posts