The Court of Appeal in Enugu on Friday dismissed the suit filed by Andy Uba of the Peoples Democratic Party, seeking to be declared governor-in waiting in Anambra State in 2010. In the suit, Mr. Uba had asked the court to declare him the Anambra governor at the expiration of tenure of the incumbent governor, Peter Obi, in February next year.
Mr. Uba served as governor of Anambra State for two weeks in 2007, following an election and the certificate of return issued to him by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in an election that excluded Mr. Obi.
Suit dismissed
In the suit, he asked the court of appeal to restrain the electoral commission from conducting a governorship election in Anambra next year. He also asked the court to declare him the governor so that he can serve out his tenure which was truncated by the Supreme Court judgement. In its ruling while dismissing the suit, the lead Justice of the five-man panel, Justice Nwali Ngwuta, said Mr. Uba failed to prove by an application that there was a mistake or slip in the earlier judgment of the Court of Appeal, which he wanted to be corrected. “The order sought by Uba was not seeking to correct any slip made by the Court of Appeal in its earlier judgment of February 18, 2008 in which it described the applicant’s appeal as meritorious,” he said.
Mr. Ngwuta noted that he was adopting the judgement of the Supreme Court while interpreting the tenure of the incumbent which declared that there was no vacancy in the governorship seat of Anambra State at the time INEC conducted the election. He described the election as “a nullity ab initio and a flagrant abuse of the Supreme Court rules, which said that “an election into the governorship seat must be conducted 60 days to the expiration of tenure of the incumbent or 30 days after”. On claims by counsel that the court, after declaring the election as meritorious, did not make a consequential order to uphold or set it aside, said “There is no need for an order of the court to set it aside, it does not exist in law. A court cannot set aside a nullity.
Illegal election
“The argument to set it aside is mere legalism; it will violate the right of the incumbent to seek a second mandate and persons who had attained voting age from exercising their franchise. The election is an illegal act done in violation of the supreme law, the order sought is the base of moral content.”
The News Agency of Nigerian (NAN) reports that Mr. Obi of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) later reclaimed his seat through a judgement of the Supreme Court. Mr. Obi successfully proved before the Supreme Court that his tenure was still running and that the election that brought Mr. Uba was illegal because there was no vacancy to warrant INEC to conduct fresh election at the time.
Mr. Uba through his counsel, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), while not challenging the decision of the Supreme Court, however claimed, in the appeal court, that his mandate was still subsisting because it had not been nullified by any court of law in the country.
Reader Comments (70)
post a comment
* = Required information