- Ex-CJN Onnoghen moves to void CCT judgement over alleged illegal removal
A five-man panel of the Supreme Court has reserved judgment in the Kogi and Bayelsa States governorship elections appeals filed by Muritala Ajaka of the Social Democratic Party and Timipre Sylva of the All Progressives Congress.
It reserved judgment in the appeal filed against the Tribunal and Appeal Court Judgements by Ajaka to a date that will be communicated to the parties.
The apex court also declined a request by Ajaka’s counsels for the constitution of a full panel to hear and determine his appeal.
At the hearing on Monday, Pius Akubo, SAN told the court that he had applied to the Chief Justice of Nigeria to allow a full panel of the Supreme Court to hear the appeal in view of paragraphs 4.28 and 4.29 of the Appellant’s Brief of Argument.
He said they had not received a response from the CJN.
But counsels to the Respondents kicked against the application and urged the court to proceed with hearing.
UC Ukala, SAN, representing the 3rd Respondent, argued that there was a decision of the Supreme Court that a five-man panel could take an application for departure from a previous decision.
In a short ruling, Justice Garba Lawal, who led the five-man panel, held that election appeals are time-bound, and that the court constituted as a five-member panel had the jurisdiction to determine the appeal as presented.
The five-member justices of the Apex Court therefore proceeded with the hearing of the appeal.
JB Daudu, SAN, who represented the 2nd Respondent with others, moved his application to strike out certain grounds of appeal contained in the Appellant’s Notice of Appeal.
He also presented a notice of preliminary objection challenging the competence of the Appeal itself.
Akubo SAN urged the Court to allow the appeal, set aside the Judgment of the Court of Appeal and return Ajaka as the duly elected Governor of Kogi State.
JB Daudu, SAN also adopted his brief for the 2nd Respondent and urged the Court to dismiss the appeal and refuse all the prayers sought by the Appellants.
He urged the Court to dismiss the Appeal, including the application to depart from previous decisions.
Kanu Agabi SAN, while adopting his process, urged the Court to dismiss the appeal since the Appellant had himself contended that the election was invalid.
On the main appeal filed by Ajaka seeking to overturn the judgment of the court of Appeal, the Supreme Court reserved Judgment to a date that will be communicated to the parties.
Both Ajaka and Sylva challenged the declarations made by the Independent Electoral Commission on the outcome of the 2023 governorship elections in their respective states.
Ajaka had appealed the judgment of a three-member tribunal that affirmed the election of Ahmed Usman Ododo of APC as the governor of Kogi State.
However, after the Appeal Court judgment in June, Ajaka alleged that the judgment was influenced by some irregularities and manipulations.
While delivering judgment, the Appeal Court upheld the tribunal judgment which dismissed his petition for lacking in merit.
On his part, Sylva in May expressed dissatisfaction with the result of the governorship election in a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Media and Public Affairs, Julius Bokoru.
The Tribunal had in its judgment delivered May 17, 2024, in Abuja, upheld the election and the return of Senator Douye Diri and his deputy, Senator Lawrence Eruwjadkpo as lawfully elected governor and deputy respectively, leading Sylva to file for an appeal.
However, in July, the Court of Appeal Abuja dismissed the appeal to challenge the judgment of the Bayelsa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.
Justice James Abundaga who read the lead judgment of the Court of Appeal affirmed the declaration of Diri and the People’s Democratic Party as the joint winners of the November 11, 2023 poll.
He awarded a cost of N500, 000 to be paid by APC and Sylva to the respondents in the appeal.
The appellate court held that the appellants did not produce credible evidence that the election took place in 184 polling units of Nembe, Ogbia and Southern Ijaw.
The court also held that going by the evidence and exhibit tendered that the election was not conducted in the disputed areas by the Independent National Electoral Commission; the issue of vote collation could not have risen.
Ex-CJN Onnoghen moves to void CCT judgment over alleged illegal removal
In another development, a former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen will on Tuesday (today) resume his legal battle at the Court of Appeal Abuja against the judgment of the Code of Conduct Tribunal that ordered his removal from office in 2019.
The former head of the Nigerian judiciary in the suit filed at the Court of Appeal since 2019 is praying the Court of Appeal to void and set aside the CCT judgment delivered against him on April 18, 2019.
In his appeal, Justice Onnoghen, through his lead counsel, Adegboyega Awomolo, is asking the appellate court to quash his conviction primarily on the ground of want of jurisdiction, bias and absence of fair hearing.
The CCT in 2019 convicted Justice Onnoghen in all the 6-count charges of breach of code of conduct for public officers brought against him by the Federal Government while in office as head of the country’s judiciary.
In the lead judgment delivered by the Chairman of the CCT, Danladi Yakubu Umar, he had ordered the immediate removal of Onnoghen from office as the CJN.
The tribunal had also stripped him of all offices earlier occupied among which were the chairman of the National Judicial Council and also the chairmanship of the Federal Judicial Service Commission.
The tribunal also ordered the forfeiture of his five bank accounts and the money in the accounts which Onnoghen did not declare in his asset declaration form submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau, an agency of the Federal Government.
