The Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Osun State, Jimi Bada has disclosed that the Court of Appeal did not reinstate the sacked council chairmen who were sacked by a Federal High Court in the state.
There has been bickerings among the state government, All Progressives Congress, Peoples Democratic Party and the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission over the Monday judgment of the Court of Appeal, Akure Division.
The APC had approached the court with the appeal against the judgement of the High Court over the 2022 local government election.
After the verdict was handed down, the APC and PDP differed on its interpretations.
While the APC said the appellate court reinstated the sacked elected council officials, the PDP and state government disagreed, saying it only struck out PDP’s case.
However, addressing newsmen at his office in Osogbo on Tuesday, the Attorney-General maintained that the court never reinstated the sacked council officials, saying the judgement in the case filed by the APP, wherein the court nullified the election is the realm that affected all parties.
“I want to confirm to you straight away that Court Appeal Akure did not go into the merit of the Appeal launched by the APC before them. Their finding was just that there was no cause of action as at the time PDP brought suit against OSSIEC at the Federal High Court and what the Court of Appeal did was to strike out the originating summon filed by the PDP, and that was all.
“Anybody can be interpreting what the court actually said, but the court did not at any point in time held that any sacked local government Chairmen should go back to office. Court of Appeal did not made that statement yesterday.”
But the National Secretary of the APC, Dr Ajibola Basiru in a statement described the Attorney-General claim as an affront to the rule of law in Nigeria, saying his position exposed the state government as an enabler of illegality.
“This deliberate misrepresentation of the court’s judgment is an affront to the rule of law and exposes the Osun State Government as an enabler of illegality. Ordinarily, it is expected that the lawyer, ought to know that there is a presumption of the validity and bindingness of a judgment of the Court until it is set aside. The only option open to a party dissatisfied with the judgment of the Court of Appeal is to challenge it by appeal to the Supreme Court. Neither Alimi nor the Osun State Government can sit on appeal over this judgment. This is elementary law.
“The Court of Appeal judgment considered all grounds of appeal raised in CA/AK/270/2022 against the judgment of the Federal High Court (Justice N. Ayo-Emmanuel), which had nullified the local government elections and ordered the elected officials to vacate office. In allowing the appeal, all the reliefs sought by APC were granted, including setting aside the judgment of the Federal High Court, and ordering the restoration of the sacked local government councils back to office”, the former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in the state stated.