CJN Swears-in 11 New Supreme Court Justices, Monday

The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Justice Olukayode Ariwoola will be administering the oath of allegiance to the 11 newly appointed Justices of the Supreme Court, Monday, February 26. With the confirmation of the 11 justices, the Supreme Court now has the complete statutory requirement of 21 justices on its bench. This was contained in a statement signed by the Director of Press, Dr Featus Akande, Friday. He said, “The newly appointed 11 Justices of the Supreme Court will be sworn-in by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola on Monday at 10.00am at the Main Courtroom of the Supreme Court.” On December 21, the Senate confirmed the appointment of 11 Supreme Court justices submitted by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to fill the vacancies on the apex court bench. The confirmation followed the consideration and adoption of a report by the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights, and Legal Matters during Thursday’s plenary. Tinubu had asked the Senate to confirm the nominees, who were recommended by the National Judicial Council to fill the vacant positions following the death and resignations of some justices. The nominees confirmed are Justice Haruna Tsammani (Northeast), who chaired the Presidential Election Petition Court, Justice Moore Adumein (South-South), Justice Jummai Sankey (North-central), Justice Chidiebere Uwa (South-east); and Justice Chioma Nwosu-Iheme (South-east). Others are Justice Obande Ogbuinya (South-East), Justice Stephen Adah (North-Central), Justice Habeeb Abiru (South-West), Justice Jamilu Tukur (Northwest), Justice Abubakar Umar (Northwest) and Justice Mohammed Idris (North-Central). The chairman of the committee, Senator Tahir Monguno (APC, Borno), while presenting his panel report, said the nominees possessed the requisite qualifications and experience to occupy the position and that there was no petition against them. He, therefore, recommended their confirmation.

Supreme Court voids AMCON takeover of Lagos Hotel

The Supreme Court of Nigeria, Friday, nullified the takeover of the landed property of Suru Worldwide Ventures Nigeria Limited by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria. With the judgment, the Apex court affirmed the decision of the Appeal court, which dismissed the order of the lower court. A Federal High Court in Lagos had ordered the takeover of the company’s property by AMCON for not paying the loan obtained from the defunct Oceanic Bank. This followed a suit by AMCON, praying the court to order security agencies to offer it protection to enable it to exercise its possessory rights as a legal mortgagee under the Deeds of Legal Mortgage, over Suru Worldwide Ventures Nigeria Limited’s landed properties. But Suru Worldwide Ventures Nigeria Limited appealed against the judgment on the grounds that it was denied a fair hearing because it was not joined as a defendant. The appellate court, in a lead judgment by Justice Ugochukwu Ogakwu, held that the failure of AMCON to join Suru Worldwide Ventures Nigeria Limited as a defendant in its suit before the Federal High Court rendered the proceedings leading to the takeover order nullity. The court also ordered that the matter be returned to the Federal High Court for a fresh hearing Reading the lead judgment at the apex court, Justice Emmanuel Agim confirmed the court’s decision to halt the company takeover and ordered a new hearing at the High Court. He said, “I find no merit in the appeal. The judgment of the court of appeal is hereby affirmed. “

Supreme Court affirms Fintiri as Adamawa governor

The Supreme Court of Nigeria, Wednesday, affirmed the election of Governor Ahmadu Fintiri as the authentic governor of Adamawa State. The apex court, in a unanimous decision by a five-member panel led by Justice Inyang Okoro, dismissed as lacking in merit the application of Senator Aisha Dahiru Banani, alongside her party, All Progressive Congress Party (APC), challenging the outcome of the governorship election that was held in the state on March 18, 2023. Senator Binani, has through her Counsel, Chief Akinolu Olujimi, SAN, prayed the court to nullify the declaration of Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP)as the valid winner of the gubernatorial contest. Specifically, she asked the court to set aside the concurrent verdict of the courts below that dismissed their case and upheld Fintiri’s re-election. She insisted that she polled the majority of valid votes cast at the election and was validly declared the winner by the state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC. She, among other things, prayed the court to determine who ought to be the bona fide Returning Officer in a gubernatorial election. However, Fintiri, through his lawyer, Mr Damian Dodo, SAN, urged the apex court to dismiss the appeal and validate his election victory. Fintiri argued that he emerged victorious, having secured the majority of lawful votes and fulfilled all the requirements of the law. Delivering judgement in the matter, the apex court panel, led by Justice Inyang Okoro, held that the action of the suspended Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, in Adamawa State, Hudu Yunusa-Ari, who declared Senator Dahiru as the winner of the poll, was an act of irresponsibility and criminality. The court held that only a Returning Officer has the duty to announce the results of an election to avert chaos and anarchy in the process. According to the Supreme Court, the Electoral Act, 2022, specified who should declare results, stressing that such power was exclusively donated to the Returning Officer. Consequently, it resolved all the issues that were raised in the appeal against the appellants.

S’Court reserves judgment on Nasarawa guber appeal

The Supreme Court of Nigeria, Tuesday, reserved judgment in the Petition seeking to sack the incumbent governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule of the All Progressive Congress (APC). The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, Hon Emmanuel David Ombugadu, is praying the apex court to set aside the November 23 judgment of the Court of Appeal which upheld Sule as the lawfully elected governor. The Petitioners, through Kanu Agabi SAN submitted that the October 2, 2023 judgment of the Nasarawa State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal in favour of PDP and Ombugadu be restored. According to him, the Court of Appeal unjustly nullified the Tribunal’s judgment and unjustly declared Sule as winner of the March 18 gubernatorial election. Agabi specifically called that the Supreme Court should allow the votes of Nasarawa state people to count and be meaningful be declaring PDP and Ombugadu as winners as rightly done by the Tribunal. However, Sule and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and APC, prayed court to dismiss the appeal for want of merit. APC lawyers, led by Akin Olujinmi SAN while adopting his brief of arguments asked the apex court to carefully looked into the cited authorities to back up their request for dismissal of the case. After taking arguments from lawyers, Justice Kekere-Ekun announced that judgment has been reserved and that the date for its delivery would be communicated to parties involved. The Appeal Court had on November 23 last year reversed the sack of Gov Sule by the State Election Petitions Tribunal in its judgment delivered on October 2. The Appellate Court held that the Tribunal headed by Ezekiel Ajayi acted in grave error in using witness statements on oath, not front-loaded as required by law to arrive at the unjust conclusion of nullifying the election of the governor. In a judgment delivered by Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam, the Court of Appeal had said the Tribunal was legally bound to act on witness statements filed along with the petition or front-loaded within 21 days stipulated by law. The Court held that no petition can lawfully be amended outside the 21 days allowed by law as wrongly done by the Tribunal. “Since the statements used by the Tribunal to sack the Governor were not front-loaded in compliance with the law, the statements were a product of illegality with no probate value for a law Court to act upon”. The Court also dismissed the over-voting issues used to annul the election, adding that the allegations were not established by law. Justice Onyemenam held that the petition by the Governorship candidate of the PDP was a nullity and invalid on the grounds that the jurisdictional issues raised by the governor were unlawfully ignored by the Tribunal. The Court of Appeal ruled that the Tribunal denied the Governor a fair hearing by not considering and making findings on the issues of jurisdiction raised at the hearing of the petition. Justice Onyemenam agreed that the denial of a fair hearing against the governor was fatal and tendered all decisions of the Tribunal invalid. In all, the Court of Appeal reversed all orders made against the governor and INEC and affirmed Sule as the lawfully elected governor of the state. INEC had declared Sule the winner of the governorship election on the grounds that he polled a total of 347,209 votes to defeat his closest opponent David Emmanuel Ombugadu who secured 283,016 votes.

Plateau Guber: S’Court Reveres Sack, Affirms Gov Mutfwang’s Election

The Supreme Court, Friday, reversed the judgment of the Court of Appeal that sacked Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State from office on ground of unlawful nomination. The judgement read by Justice Emmanuel Agim held that the court below made an error in allowing the All Progressives Congress APC to delve into the conduct of the primary election by the People’s Democratic Party PDP and nullified the election unjustly. The court held that the issue of primary election was an internal affairs of political parties and that no other party can dabble into it except members of the same party. Besides, Justice Agim said that the issue of alleged improper conduct of the ward and local governments election used to sack the Governor was not justiceable. According to him, the conduct of the ward and local governments election was an affairs of the State Executive Committee of a political party while the conduct of the primary election for the nomination of a governorship candidate is entirely that of the National Executive Committee of a political party. Also, the court established that there was no issue of irregularities in the ways and manners the Governorship primary election that produced the governor was conducted in Plateau and wondered why that of the ward election was used to nullify the gubernatorial poll. He said that evidence was even well adduced that an order of Plateau State High Court allegedly disobeyed was indeed obeyed by parties involved. Therefore, the court unanimously voided and set aside the order of the Court of Appeal that Nentawe Goshwehe, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) be inaugurated as Plateau State Governor. The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the Plateau State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal which had earlier dismissed the petition of the APC and its governorship candidate. Governor Mutfwang of the PDP scored 525,299 votes to beat the All Progressives Congress candidate, Nentawe Yilwatda, who garnered 481,370 votes during the 18 March governorship poll in Plateau State. The governor’s election was upheld by the Plateau State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal in Jos, the state capital. However, the Court of Appeal in Abuja, in its judgement delivered on 19 November 2023, overturned Mr Mutfwang’s victory, prompting him to file an appeal at the Supreme Court to challenge the lower court’s decision.

Lagos Guber: Gov Sanwo-Olu wins at the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of Nigeria, Friday, affirmed the election of Sanwo-Olu as the authentic governor of Lagos in the March 18 general electron. The five-man panel of the Apex Court thereby rubbished the appeal brought before it by the Labour Party(LP) and its governorship candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour. The court held that the petition seeking the disqualification of Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Sanwo-Olu and his Deputy Obafemi Hamza from the poll totally lacked merit. In a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Garba Lawal, the court held that the allegations of renouncing Nigerian citizenship by the Lagos State Deputy Governor for the United States of America cannot be used to disqualify the respondents. The Apex Court said that since Obafemi Hamza is a Nigerian by birth, his acquisition of American citizen has not taken his right as a Nigerian from him. It also maintained that the Petitioners failed prove with credible evidence that the Deputy Governor indeed renounced his Nigerian citizenship. Consequence to the above, the court upheld that the decision of the Court of Appeal which had on November 15 dismissed the earlier appeal filed by Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour and Labour Party against the election of Babajide Sanwo-Olu. Recall that the Court of Appeal three-member panel led by Yargata Nimpar, had in a unanimous decision affirmed the judgement of the Lagos State Election Petitions Tribunal that upheld the victory of Sanwo-Olu as the elected governor of Lagos in the March 18 election.

New Supreme Court Justices To Be Sworn In

Eleven new justices of the Supreme Court will be sworn in next week.  The Senate had in December 2023 confirmed the 11 justices as requested by President Bola Tinubu. The Justices billed for swearing-in are: Hon. Justice Jummai Hannatu Sankey, OFR – North Central Hon. Justice Stephen Jonah Adah – North Central Hon. Justice Mohammed Baba Idris Hon. Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani – North East Hon. Justice Jamilu Yammama Tukur – North West Hon. Justice Abubakar Sadiq Umar – North West Hon. Justice Chidiebere Nwaoma Uwa – South East Hon. Justice Chioma Egondu Nwosu-Iheme – South East Hon. Justice Obande Festus Ogbuinya – South East Hon. Justice Moore Aseimo A. Adumein – South south Hon. Justice Habeeb Adewale O. Abiru – South West When sworn in, the apex court will have the full complement of 21 justices, as envisaged by the Constitution.

Akwa ibom: Umo Eno remains Gov as S/Court dismisses APC, YPP, NNPP’s petitions

The Supreme Court, Thursday, affirmed the election of Umo Eno as the governor of Akwa Ibom State, in the March 18, governorship election in the state The seven-man panel of the Apex court, lead by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, dismissed the petition following the withdrawal of three separate appeals brought before it by the petitioners alleging certificate forgery. They failed to convinced the panel that Emo Eno Bassey and Bassey Eno Emo were not the same and as such that the governor allegedly forged his Secondary School Certificate. Consequently, the lead counsel to the respective parties withdrew their separate appeals as the apex court panel of Justices hinted that they have no merit. The Petitioners in the matter are All Progressive Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate, Akanimo Udofia, Young Progressive Party(YPP) and its gubernatorial candidate, Akpan Albert Bassey as well as that of New Nigeria People’s Party(NNPP)and its governorship candidate, John James Akpan Udoedehe. Their arguments especially forgery allegations did not go down well with the Apex Court Justices who queried the lawyers on whether the West African Examinations Council WAEC gave evidence to establish the criminal allegations. Upon admission that WAEC did not testify in the matter, the lawyers opted and separately withdrew the appeal. This prompted Justice Abba-Aji to dismiss them following no objections from lawyers to the various respondents. The Court did not award cost against any of the lawyers to the appellants having voluntarily withdrew their cases on ground of want of merit. The Court of Appeal in Lagos had in November last year affirmed the election of Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State in the governorship election held on March 18, 2023. The appellate court in its judgment dismissed three separate appeals, filed against the governor’s election. While affirming the September 28, 2023 judgments of the election petition tribunal, the three-member panel of Justices headed by Festus Obande dismissed the appeal brought by the governorship candidate of the Young Progressives Party, Bassey Akpan, and his party against the Independent National Electoral Commission, Eno, and the Peoples Democratic Party. Justice Obande also granted judgments in favour of the governor against the appeals of the governorship candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party, John Udoedehe, as well as Akanimo Udofia, of the All Progressives Congress. The appellate court declared in the unanimous judgments that all three appeals lacked merit.

Ogun Guber: Supreme Court reserves judgment seeking Abiodun’s removal

The Supreme Court has reserved judgment on the appeal by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and it’s candidate, Ladi Adebutu, in the March 18, governorship election. Adebutu’s appeal is seeking the nullification of the declaration of Dapo Abiodun as winner of the election. Specifically, he is challenging Abiodun’s re-election on the ground that the Electoral Act, 2022, was not adhered to, citing corrupt practices and issues of non-qualification. Specifically, PDP and Adebutu want the Supreme Court to set aside and dismiss the judgement of the Court of Appeal, Lagos, which had on November 23, affirmed the decision of the Tribunal in upholding Adiodun’s victory. Recall that two Judges of the court below had dismissed the appeal filed by Adebutu for lacking in merit, while Justice Jane Esienanwan Inyang saw merit in the petition and thereby ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the certificate of return presented to Abiodun and conduct another election in 99 polling units where elections were disrupted. In adopting his brief of arguments, Chris Uche SAN, counsel for the appellants said INEC ought to have conducted fresh elections in 99 polling units where elections were cancelled and not declared a winner. He said the return of the governor by INEC was unlawful and the election was wrongly concluded because corrupt practices were allegedly manifest during the March 18, governorship poll. Abiodun Owonikoko, counsel for the first respondent(INEC), asked the apex court to dismiss the appeal. He maintained that governorship and presidential election is not determined by margin of lead but by spread of votes, according to Section 179 of the 1999 Constitution. Wole Olanipekun, counsel for second respondent, urged the apex court to dismiss the appeal which challenges concurrent decisions of the two lower courts. INEC had declared Abiodun winner of the governorship election after polling 276,298 votes to defeat his closest rival Adebutu, who polled 262,383 votes.

Abia Guber: S/Court reserves judgment in PDP’s appeal against Otti

The Supreme Court of Nigeria, yesterday, reserved judgment in an appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, Okey Ahiwe, seeking the nullification of the election of Alex Oti as the Governor of Abia State. The five-man panel of the justices lead by Justice John Inyang Okoro, reserved the judgment till a date to be communicated to parties after taking their final arguments. The PDP in it’s argument, alleged that Ahiwe was short-changed with over 84,000 votes during the collation of the governorship election results. The party, had through it’s counsel, Uche Ihediuwa, SAN, alleged that the agent of the PDP was chased away at the collation center and as such, was not obliged a copy of the results as required by law. He claimed that his client had to approach the All Progressives Congress (APC) before it could access results sheets and discovered the alleged malpractices. The governor, in his defense asked the court to dismiss the appeal for wants of merit. Gov. Otti, represented by Abiodun John Owonikoko, SAN, informed the court that Otti scored over 174,000 votes at the March 18, 2023 governorship election to emerge victorious, adding that even if the purported 84,000 short-changed votes were added to PDP, the appellants would still not win. He noted that a purported result sheet produced by the PDP before the State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal was rejected because it could not be read by the witness of the party. Gov. Alex Otti of the Labour Party(LP) was declared the winner of the governorship election in the Abia State by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on 22 March. He polled 175,466 votes to defeat his closest rival, Ahiwe of the PDP, who scored 88,529 votes. However, not satisfied with the out come of the election, Ahiwe and the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ikechi Emenike, separately challenged Otti’s victory at the tribunal. On 6th October 2023, the Tribunal dismissed the petitions by Ahiwe and Emenike and affirmed Otti’s election, which was later affirmed by the Appallate court.