As controversy continues to trail Friday
night’s arrest of judges by officers of the Department of Security Service
(DSS), indications have emerged according to daily sun that their judgments on Anambra, Zamfara, Kogi
and Ekiti states governorship tussle may be the bone of contention.
The raids were carried out by agents of the
DSS in Abuja, Port Harcourt and Gombe and the judges affected are of the
Supreme Court and Federal High Court.
Justice John
Okoro of the Supreme Court
Anambra PDP leadership crisis: The INEC had
filed a case to the Supreme Court seeking clarification on its ruling on the
January 29, 2016 that reinstated Mr. Ejike Oguebego as the Chairman of the PDP,
Anambra State chapter.
Following the judgment of the Supreme Court
recognizing the Oguebego- led state Executives of the PDP in Anambra,
controversy ensued as to whether some serving lawmakers from the state and
National Assembly who were not on the list submitted by the Ejike Oguebego-led
state executive had been sacked by the court.
INEC said it was confused because the
beneficiaries of the judgment had approached it to issue certificate of return
to them as lawmakers representing the state.
It was based on this that INEC approached the
apex court for some clarifications.
But delivering ruling on the application,
Justice John Okoro said the issue of primaries was not included in the appeal
that came before it even as it was still pending at the High Court, before
primaries were held.
He pointed that the Supreme Court had ruled
severally that only the National Executive of a party can forward a list to
INEC, and since INEC said it was the National Executive that did that, and not
the caretaker committee, then there was no contest.
Justice Okoro said that the dispute on
whether the Certificate of Return should be withdrawn from the serving
lawmakers and given to the list of candidates of the Oguebego faction was not
an issue before the court and that the court never made any pronouncement to
that effect.
Mr Oguebego had sued on behalf of themselves
and others including Mr Chris Uba, who is the Anambra South Senatorial zone’s
candidate for the apex court to determine who were the legal and validly
nominated candidates of the party to stand for the last general elections for
the party in the state.
The faction said that going by the ruling,
the list of nominated party candidates in the last election from the
Oguebego-led executive of the Anambra PDP is the only one to be recognised by
the INEC.
Zamfra guber tussle: Justice Okoro also
delivered judgment affirming the election of Abdulazeez Yari of All
Progressives Congress (APC) as governor of Zamfara State. Justice John Okoro-led panel of six judges
held that the petition lacked substance.
Mr. Okoro said the appellant must also relate
each of the documents to the specific area of the case in respect of which
documents were tendered. He added that the appellant ought to have shown that
figures, representing over-voting, if removed, would result in victory for the
petitioner.
Kogi guber tussle: Justice Okoro was also one
of the seven-man panel of the Supreme Court who sat on the disputed Kogi State
governorship election that upheld Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello’s election.
He delivered the lead judgment in the third appeal filed by the African Democratic
Congress (ADC) read by Justice John Okoro, while Justice Musa Datijo Mohammed
read the lead judgment in the appeal by the Labour Party (LP).
Justice
Sylvester Ngwuta of Supreme Court
Rev King’s death sentence: He delivered
judgment in the celebrated case of the convicted General-Overseer of the
Christian Praying Assembly, Chukwuemeka Ezeugo, a.k.a Rev. King
In a unanimous judgment, a seven-man panel of
Justices of the apex court led by Justice
Walter Onnoghen, upheld the death sentence that was earlier handed to Ezeugo by
the Lagos State High Court.
Consequently, the court in its lead verdict
that was delivered by Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, dismissed the appeal the
convicted clergy lodged before it.
Justice Ngwuta who noted that “the facts of the case could have been lifted from
horror film”, resolved all the 12 issues Ezeugo raised in his appeal.”
Ekiti guber: Justice Ngwuta delivered the
lead judgment in the disputed
governorship election in Ekiti State, between the APC and Governor Ayo
Fayose.
In a lead judgment delivered by Justice
Ngwuta, the Supreme Court upheld the earlier decisions of the Court of Appeal
and the Ekiti State Governorship election tribunal, which had both ruled that
the petition challenging Fayose’s victory lacked merit.
Justice Ngwuta dismissed the appeal filed by
the petitioner-the APC and resolved all four arising from the appeal against
Fayose’s victory.
Justice Ngwuta’s latest judgment was the Kogi
State governorship election petition delivered on September 30, 2016 where the court gave its reasons for its
decision affirming the election of Governor Yahaya Bello.
In the said judgment, the Supreme Court said it dismissed the appeal of James Faleke
of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Kogi governorship elections because
the reliefs sought were an “aberration, not known to law.’’
Justice
Ademola Adeniyi of Federal High Court
Justice Adeniyi has delivered a number of
judgments and prominent among them is the illegal arms case brought by the
Federal Government against three Lebanese nationals, including co-owner of
Amingo Supermarket, Mustapha Fawaz, and owner of the popular wonderland
recreation centre. In a 16-count charge, the government had specifically
alleged that Fawaz who is equally the owner of Wonderland Amusement Park Resort
in Abuja and his compatriots were members of the military wing of a Lebanon
based terrorist organization, Hezbollah.
Government had further alleged that Thahini,
who it said had attempted to escape from the country via a Middle East airline,
was deeply involved in terrorism financing in the country. During the hearing of the case, Government
counsel, Mr. Simon Egede called 10 witnesses and maintained that the accused
persons were in charge of the operations of Hezbollah in Nigeria and tendering
a total of 25 exhibits in the course of the trial.
Among the exhibits admitted against them by
the court included guns, cartridge belt holders with ammunition, pellets for
Air Rifles, 150 cartridges, 158 rounds of cartridges, two bound copies of still pictures of arms
and ammunition that were allegedly discovered in one of their premises at No 3
Gaya Road, off Bompai Road in Kano, two video CDs and witness statements.
Other arms allegedly uncovered at the
underground bunker owned by the suspects were anti-tank weapons,
rocket-propelled guns and anti-tank/anti-personnel mines.
According to the security operatives that
conducted the search, the arms and ammunition were properly concealed with
several layers of concrete and placed in coolers, drums and bags neatly
wrapped. The 3rd accused who was convicted, Roda, was not only apprehended
inside the bunker where the arms were recovered, but also confessed that he was
commissioned by another Lebanese who is an in-law to Fawaz, Abdalhassan Tahir, currently at large, to be
servicing the guns.
But in his judgment, Justice Adeniyi
dismissed the 16-count criminal charge that was preferred against the Lebanese
co-owner of Amigo Supermarket, Mustapha Fawaz, by the Federal Government.
However, the court found the 3rd accused
person, Tahal Roda, guilty on two counts of criminal conspiracy contrary to
section 1(14) (a) (i) of Miscellaneous Offences Act, CAP M17, LFN, 2004, and
sentenced him to life imprisonment on each of the counts, stressing that his
sentence should run concurrently.
Equally discharged by the court yesterday was another Lebanese,
Abdullahi Thahini, who was arrested at the Mallam Aminu Kano International
Airport on May 11, 2013, and the sum of $61, 170, recovered from him.
In his judgment, trial Justice Adeniyi,
upheld their argument, maintaining that the prosecution, failed to prove the
terrorism allegation against them beyond every reasonable doubt. Justice
Adeniyi held that there was no evidence before him to prove that Nigeria has
proscribed Hezbollah as an international terrorist organization.
Case on defected PDP lawmakers to APC:
Justice Adeniyi also gave judgment in the case of defected lawmakers wherein,
he gave an order of perpetual injunction restraining the lawmakers who defected
from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to the All Progressives Congress, APC,
from effecting any leadership change in the House of Representatives.
The PDP had on January 7, 2015 instituted a
suit seeking to restrain the House of Representatives from altering the
composition of its leadership.
The party had commenced the action following
the defection of 37 lawmakers, who won election on its platform, to the
opposition APC. The defection had initially given the APC a slim majority in
the House. The majority was later reversed when some APC lawmakers decamped to
the PDP.
Anambra senatorial election case: The recent
judgment from Justice Adeniyi was the protracted Anambra State PDP leadership
crisis where he affirmed the sanctity of the process that led to the election
of Stella Odauh, Andy Uba, Mrs. Margery Okadigbo,
Chris Azubogu and other members of the National Assembly from Anambra State.
The judge dismissed the originating summons
filed by Okonkwo and his cohorts.
He consequently held that since Ubah, Oduah,
Okadigbo and others were nominated by the PDP’s NEC, their nominations remained
valid.
Conversely, the judge ruled that Annie
Okonkwo and 43 others nominated by the PDP’s state exco in Anambra were not
validly nominated and they could therefore not lay claim to the election.
To support his position, the judge cited the
Supreme Court’s judgement in the same matter which was delivered earlier this
year.
Okonkwo had dragged the Independent National
Electoral Commission before the court. However, 20 others including the PDP,
Ubah, Oduah, Okadigbo, Azubogu and others
whose interest would be affected by the case applied to be joined and were
dully made parties to the suit.
Justice Ademola dismissed the suit saying it
was an abuse of the processes of the court.
In the judgment that lasted for about an
hour, Justice Ademola held that the plaintiffs’ claim that they were the
rightfully nominated candidate of the PDP in the National and State House of
Assembly election in March and April 11, 2016 could not stand in the face of
the law because they were unlawfully nominated by the state executive of the
party. The court held that it has been established by the Supreme Court that
the power to conduct primary election, nomination of candidates and submission
of list of candidates to the INEC was vested on the National Executive
Committee (NEC) of political parties.
The judge said, in the instant case the
plaintiffs, having emerged from a primary election conducted by the state
executive of the PDP, submitted themselves to an act of illegality and as such
could not seek legal backing for such a nomination.
The trial judge referred to the Supreme Court
judgment of January 29, 2016 and the ruling of the apex court delivered on
February 24, 2016 where the issue of the powers of the PDP NEC and the state
executive committee was ventilated to the effect that the state organ of the
party had no power under the constitution of the party and the Electoral Act to
nominate candidates for the purpose of general election.
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