Appeal Court gives PDP, govs deadline on tenure extension debacle

Posted by admin Governors, Latest Politics, Party Politics, Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) Friday, March 25th, 2011

FIVE state governors have been directed by the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, to within three days file their reply to the appeal of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), seeking to vacate the verdict of the Federal High Court, Abuja Division, extending their tenure beyond May 2011.

The court also gave three days to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to file its own brief of argument in the matter.

It granted INEC’s request to accelerate hearing on the appeal in order to determine the substantive case before the date scheduled for governorship election nationwide.

The court also ordered the abridgement of the time within which the defendants could file their defence.

Also yesterday, the Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi filed a notice of preliminary objection against the suit filed by Segun Oni, who is seeking a reversal of the Appeal Court judgment, which sacked him from office.

The Court of Appeal, in a judgment delivered on October 15, last year by its President, Justice Ayo Salami, nullified Oni’s election and ordered that Fayemi be sworn in having proved beyond reasonable doubt that he scored the majority of lawful votes cast in both 2007 governorship election and the 2009 re-run polls.

And in Cross River State, the Federal High Court in Calabar has ruled that Governor Liyel Imoke and 37 others are free to contest the 2011 polls.

INEC had rejected the list of the PDP, arguing that the party did hold proper congresses.

While moving the INEC’s application for an accelerated hearing on the five governors’ suit yesterday, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN) submitted that time was of the essence as the elections are at the corner.

After granting the application, the court adjourned the appeal to Thursday, March 31, 2011 for definite hearing.

In a considered judgment of the lower court, Justice Adamu Bello had declared that the tenure of Governors Ibrahim Idris (Kogi), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Muritala Nyako (Adamawa), Liyel Imoke (Cross River) and Timipre Sylva (Bayelsa) would expire at various times other than May 29, this year.

Dissatisfied, INEC lodged an appeal at the appellate court in Abuja contending that the judge was wrong in granting the governors’ application.

Bello ruled that Idris will leave office on April 5, 2012, Wammakko will vacate the seat on May 28, 2012, Nyako leaves on April 30, 2012, Sylva quits on May 29, 2012 while Imoke goes on August 28, 2012.

Bello had held that because the tenure of the affected governors had not yet expired, it would be illegal for INEC to conduct elections in the affected states.

In his judgment in the consolidated suits filed by the five governors, Justice Bello held that the tenure of the governors legally started in 2008 when they took fresh oath of office and allegiance following the nullification of their April 14, 2007 elections by the courts.

Justice Bello said although section 180 of the 1999 Constitution was amended in 2010 by the National Assembly and signed into law by the President, the amendment had no effect on the five governors since their rerun election had taken place before the amendment.

Consequently, the court quashed the preparations by INEC and PDP to conduct elections in the affected states and ordered that elections would only take place in the states next year.

He said: “INEC cannot validly conduct elections in the five states until 60 days to the expirations of the tenure of the present occupants.

In his objection to Oni’s appeal, Fayemi described the suit filed five months after he was sacked as an “after-thought and an attempt to subject the judges that sat on the Ekiti appeal to an unwarranted odium and opprobrium.”

The governor in his notice of preliminary objection and counter-affidavit filed at the Court of Appeal, Ado-Ekiti, which was made available to journalists yesterday, said that the October 15, 2010 verdict “reflects the wishes and aspirations of Ekiti people, who voted him to power.”

Fayemi said Oni’s return to Appeal Court had portrayed him as a “bad loser, who is not willing to honourably accept defeat after he

had gone to church for thanksgiving service for a ‘successful’ tenure of office.”

He averred that his appeal against Oni’s election was successful after it was allowed by the Court of Appeal, which set aside the majority judgment delivered by the lower tribunal and affirmed the minority judgment “after a holistic consideration of evidence led by all parties and submission of their counsel.”

Fayemi deposed that he was shocked that Oni and the PDP could concoct false stories against the learned justices that heard his appeal “in a desperate bid to desecrate the judiciary and achieve their worthless aspirations to reclaim their purported mandate.”

The purpose of Oni’s motion, Fayemi stated, was to harass, annoy and oppress him and his party (Action Congress of Nigeria) and also to cause unnecessary distractions, adding that Oni’s claim that he was denied justice was spurious as he was given sufficient time and opportunity to prosecute his case.

Fayemi stressed that all parties to the petition at the Appeal Court were adequately represented by counsel and no counsel was prevented from conducting his case to the best of his ability and maintained that all parties were given fair hearing as they all filed their briefs of argument and gave oral evidence.

While praying the court to dismiss Oni’s suit, Fayemi averred that the court having delivered its judgment on October 15, 2010 becomes functus officio and is precluded from reviewing or varying the judgment or order made thereunder.

“The filing of the motion is vexatious, oppressive, want in bona fide and constitutes flagrant abuse of court process. The condition precedent for the setting aside of court’s judgment ex debito justiciae have not been fulfilled by the applicants.

“The motion of the applicants is strange and unknown to Law,” Fayemi averred.

Imoke and 37 other PDP candidates in various positions had through their counsel, Mr. Paul Erokoro, dragged INEC to the Federal High Court, Calabar, and secured an interim injunction through a motion ex-parte restraining the commission “from rejecting, invalidating, nullifying or disqualifying the plaintiffs as candidates of the PDP in Cross River State for various elective positions at the 2011 general elections, pending the

determination of the motion on notice.”

The trial Judge, A. F. A. Ademola, yesterday ruled that INEC cannot stop or disqualify Imoke and 37 others on grounds that INEC attended the PDP primaries.

He also held that INEC gave Imoke and others nomination forms and accepted same from them, published the names in all their constituencies.

The court further ruled that by Section 33 of the Electoral Act, INEC has no powers to disqualify any candidate of any party.

-Punchwp_posts