Aloysius Katsina-Alu
This morning, a seven-man panel of the apex court unanimously ruled that Arthur Agwuncha Nwankwo, presidential candidate of the People's Mandate Party (PMP) and his running mate, Muhammad Abdullahi, had a valid case in challenging the election of Umaru Yar’adua in April 2007. The legal challenge, brought by way of appeal against the election of Umaru Yar’adua and Goodluck Jonathan, received what a senior advocate characterized as “a surprise and unusual boost from the Supreme Court.” .
The case had earlier been thrown out by the presidential election petition tribunal headed by Justice James Ogebe on September 3rd 2007 for lacking in competence.
A highly knowledgeable source told Saharareporters that the apex court’s decision to overturn Justice Ogebe’s ruling must be seen in the context of the grave power play that has paralyzed Nigeria’s governance and cast presidential leadership in a serious crisis. Loyalists to both Yar’adua and Jonathan are currently engaged in a grim brinkmanship over which faction is to exercise power – even as Yar’adua remains bedridden and has not been seen or heard from by Nigerians ten days after his purported discharge from a Saudi hospital.
Today’s judgment, which was delivered with five justices in attendance while two were absent, concluded that Mr. Nwankwo’s appeal was meritorious, ruling that it set aside the September 2007 judgment for being null and void. The Supreme Court subsequently remitted the case to the lower court to be adjudicated by a fresh panel to be constituted by the President of the Court of Appeal.
Three sources, two legal authorities and the third a top PDP politician, told Saharareporters that the case could prove tricky especially at the time when the country badly needed a way out of its present political logjam.
“I can tell you that today’s judgment represents a move by the Supreme Court leadership in conjunction with some political operatives on the Yar’adua side of the political equation to use the court to ease out Dr. Goodluck Jonathan from office by annulling the election at the reconstituted Court of Appeal,” said one of the sources.
Our informants stated that, once the election is annulled, the PDP would decide not to appeal the verdict at the Supreme Court. “Instead, the party would welcome the chance to present another set of candidates to replace Yar’adua and Jonathan – claiming that its original presidential candidate is incapacitated,” said one source. He added that the ruling party would most likely hand its ticket to Babangida, with Ibori as the vice presidential candidate. “The duo would then be positioned to steal victory in early elections that might be ordered by the Court of Appeal,” said one of our sources.
Our political sources said the apex court’s judgment is part of the ruling party’s covert designs to shut out new candidates that are likely to emerge to challenge a weakened PDP in elections scheduled for 2011.
A legal expert told Saharareporters that the apex court’s decision is also suspicious since a majority of the same court had ruled last year that Yar’adua’s election was in order – despite detailed evidence of substantial violations of the electoral act.
“I am highly disturbed by this ruling,” said a Port Harcourt-based senior advocate, adding that the verdict “smacked of political adventurism of the worst kind.”
Since January, Justice Aloysius Katsina–Alu has led the apex court. Known for his close ties to serial criminal Ibori as well as former Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa, both prominent members of the Yar’adua “kitchen cabinet,” Katsina-Alu is notorious in legal circles for his penchant for corruption and meddling in cases to derail justice.
Last week, Justice Katsina-Alu pulled one of his suspicious moves when he intervened to halt the scheduled ruling of the Court of Appeal to decide the gubernatorial election in Sokoto State. One lawyer told us that the Chief Justice’s intrusive maneuver in that case, exclusively exposed by Saharareporters, was unprecedented in the history of the Nigerian judiciary.
One of our sources said that the new Chief Justice appeared to be positioning the courts to help the Ibori faction of the PDP to reestablish control both of the party and Nigeria.
But in a short interview with us, the lead lawyer to the plaintiffs, Nnabuike Edechime, explained that his clients actually wanted the Supreme Court to annul the 2007 election by invoking Section 37 (1) of the 2006 Electoral Act. The act states: “If after the time for the delivery of nomination paper and before the commencement of the poll, a nominated candidate dies, the Chief National Electoral Commissioner or the Resident Electoral Commissioner shall, being satisfied of the fact of the death, countermand the poll in which the deceased candidate was to participate and the Commission shall appoint some other convenient date for the election.” Mr. Edechime explained that the electoral commission should have rescheduled the 2007 election when Adebayo Adefarati, the presidential candidate of the Alliance for Democracy, died on March 29, 2007, just before the election. He said it was proper for the courts to nullify the presidential election on account of Adefarati’s death.
Asked if he was aware that the ruling might have interesting political implications at this time, Edechime said he thought the annulment of the election would be the best way out of the political logjam besetting Nigeria at the moment.
Today’s ruling took place in the presence of James Ogebe and John Fabiyi, two justices who played a role in upholding the legitimacy of Yar’adua’s election at the lower tribunal. After Ogebe and Fabiyi handed victory to Yar’adua, they were hastily elevated to the Supreme Court.
Today’s case was presided over by Justice George Oguntade, who was absent from court. Justice Walter Onnoghen, who was also absent, wrote the ruling. Other justices on the panel are Olufunmilayo Adekeye, Mahmud Mohammed, Francis Tabai, Ikechi Ogbuagu and Muhammed Muntaka Coomasie.
Wole Olanipekun and Damina Dodo, both senior advocates of Nigeria, represented Yar’adua/Jonathan while Kanu Agabi (SAN) represented the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and 40 others.
Edechime, Mirabel Edozie and Uba Chukwuka represented the plaintiffs, Arthur Nwankwo and the Peoples Mandate Party.
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