Election cases: Vacationing Court of Appeal justices placed on standby
July 13, 2015
Written by Eric Ikhilae, Abuja
Court of Appeal (PCA)President Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa has directed justices of the court, who are going on vacation to get ready for appeals emanating from election tribunals.
She said any of them might be recalled from vacation, scheduled for between July 13 and September 11 to attend to appeals from the election tribunals.
The PCA, in a letter to justices of the court, urged them not to hesitate to heed such calls. She hailed them for their support and hard work during the receding legal year.
The court’s Chief Registrar, Aliyu Ibrahim, in a statement, quoted Justice Bulkachuwa as saying in her letter to the justices that the court would resume on September 14, but “with a caveat that justices might be recalled back at short notice should any appeal arises from the decisions of the ongoing election tribunals.”
About 74 of such tribunals were established nationwide to hear petitions from both the governorship and legislative elections held earlier this year.
Of all the tribunals, those of states, such as Rivers, Akwa-Ibom, Yobe, Taraba, Borno and Adamawa sit in Abuja owing to security problem in the states.
But respondents like the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, whose election is being challenged at the state’s governorship tribunal, is querying the tribunal’s decision to sit in Abuja.
Akwa Ibom State Governor Emmanual Udom and his predecessor Godswill Akpabio have raised similar issues before the state’s governorship and legislative tribunals.
Incidentally, none of the tribunals has ruled on the various applications challenging their decision to sit in Abuja.
Instead, they have elected to await the decision of the Court of Appeal in a case pending before it, which queried the legitimacy of the Rivers tribunals and their relocation to Abuja.
The case was filed before the Federal High Court, Abuja on April 24 by a governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in Rivers State, Kemka Elenwo.
The plaintiff urged the court to, among others, declare the Rivers tribunals unconstitutional on the grounds that it was constituted by the PCA in disregard to Paragraph 2(3) of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.
It also queried the decision of the PCA to direct the relocation of the Rivers tribunals to Abuja, arguing that the PCA lacked such powers under Section 285(2) of the Constitution.
The plaintiff relied heavily on the 2005 decision of the Court of Appeal in the case of Ibori vs. Ogboru (2005) 6, 1″3 (pt. 920) C. A. 102, where the appellate court held that a tribunal must sit in the state where an election was held to determine any dispute arising from such election.
On June 24, Justice Gabriel Kolawole, in a ruling, referred the case to the Court of appeal for determination.
Justice Kolawole hinged his decision on the grounds that the circumstances under which the Appeal Court determined the Ibori case in 2005 has changed today.
He noted that the security environment under which the 2005 case was determined is different from what it is now, which informed the relocation of some states’ tribunals, including that of Rivers State to Abuja.
About Unknown
Teryila Ibn Apine is a public affairs analyst and a blogger.
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