Lawyers have commended the judgement of the Supreme Court upturning the judgement of the Court of Appeal which sacked Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State, Yusuf Abba Kabir of Kano State and Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State.
The lawyers who spoke with Tribune Online commended the apex court for faulting the quality of judgments of some Justices of the Court of Appeal in the governorship election petitions brought before them.
The lawyers also viewed the judgments of the appellate court that nullified the elections of governors of Plateau, Kano and Zamfara States as perverse.
Justices of the Court of Appeal that sat on the appeals from the Governorship Election Petition Tribunals had voided the election of Governors Caleb Mutfwang of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Yusuf Abba Kabir of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) and Dauda Lawal, also of the PDP on grounds of alleged unlawful nomination and sponsorship and deduction of allegedly illegal votes.
The Supreme Court, in its judgment on Friday, reversed the judgements of the appellate court, saying that, no court has the jurisdiction to dabble in the internal affairs of political parties.
Speaking to newsmen after the verdict of the Supreme Court on Friday, a constitutional lawyer and rights activist, Prof. Mike Ozekhome (SAN), made a case for a review of the law that restricted National and state houses of assembly elections to the Court of Appeal.
Ozekhome lamented the fate of the lawmakers who lost out because their case ended at the appellate court and were denied the opportunity of getting the wrongful judgments against them by the appellate reversed.
The Appeal Court had sacked legislators of the PDP in Plateau state on the ground that they emerged from a faulty primary held in disobedience to an order of the Plateau State High Court.
However, the Supreme Court in its judgment held that the appellate court was wrong to have looked into how they were sponsored by the PDP, adding that the order of the State High Court which they had anchored their decision was made outside jurisdiction and therefore of no consequences.
The apex court added also that evidence before it showed that the said order of the High Court was complied with when the PDP went to conduct a fresh election.
In his reaction to the Supreme Court judgment on the Plateau state governorship appeal, an Abuja-based legal practitioner, Godwin Sunday Ogboji commended the Justices of the apex court for the judgement.
He noted that “The Supreme Court has a panel of five Justices, the Appeal Court has three Justices on its panel while the trial court has one. If a judgement is found not to be in accordance with the law, it can be checked, that is why they say that, two heads are better than one, obviously, five heads are better than three”.
He said, the Supreme Court wondered why the Plateau matter, which is an internal affair of a party was brought before it and added that there are several authorities that said that, the internal affairs of political parties are outside the exclusive determination of the Courts.
“If the political party proceeded to do what it wanted to do and the internal members do not challenge it, no any other person can challenge that decision of the party and the court has no right to dabble into it.
“We are taken aback when the Court of Appeal turned that aspect of the law outside down. The decision of the appellate court was based on an order by a High Court to the effect that the PDP should conduct a fresh primary election, which it noted that the party ignored.
“But the PDP said, it did not disobey any court order and the Supreme Court agreed with that, there was no order of the court that was disobeyed”, he said and added that the Court of Appeal should not have proceeded to determine internal affairs of a political party.
“Fortunately for Governor Mutfwang, the Supreme Court agreed that there was no court order that was breached or contravened by the PDP, so whatever happened in the party was normal and correct, hence, the Supreme Court reversed the judgement of the Court of Appeal,@ he said.
On his part, the chairman of the Garki branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Obioma Ezenwobodo also agreed with the apex court that, the judgement of the Appeal Court, with respect to who a candidate of a political party is, was perverse.
According to him, the issue of a party’s candidate is an internal affair of a party and a pre-election matter, adding that, the Supreme Court berated the Justices of the appellate court for going against the established principle of law that says that, once a matter is a pre-election matter, it has to be litigated at the Federal of State High Courts and that, issue of candidate of a party should not be brought before an election petition Tribunal.
“The implication is that all the PDP lawmakers in Plateau state lost their seats. To me, it is an injustice to the affected lawmakers.
“By the constitutional provisions, matters dealing with legislators terminate at the Court of Appeal. The Constitution should be amended so that the whole matter should be exhausted at the Supreme Court”.
He said the affected legislators from the Plateau should petition against such judgment because it was negligence on the part of the Judges.
“Parties concerned can do a petition to the National Judicial Commission (NJC) because once a Judge goes out of the established principle of law, it is a perverse judgment that ought not to have been given.
“Why they took that route is still what people are wondering about. Politicians will bring pre-election matters to the Tribunal and Judges will sit over them. It is something that should be discouraged”, he said and further submitted that election Tribunals should be restricted to matters on the election properly and not matters that emanated before the election.
Also speaking on the issue, another Abuja lawyer, Emmanuel Ekwe said, that although the Supreme Court had, overtime dished out controversial verdicts heavily tainted with elements of clear bias and injustice, it deserves some sort of accolades this time around for playing the “big daddy role” on Friday.
The lawyer commended the fearless judgment of the apex court restoring the electoral victory of Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State, saying, “At least, the black market judgement delivered by the Court of Appeal was thwarted thereby giving rule of law its pride of place. This will go a long way to strengthen confidence in the judiciary, especially the apex court.
“How can the appellate court void the election of the Governor on grounds of alleged unlawful nomination and sponsorship despite several decisions of the Supreme Court that tribunals and courts lacked the jurisdiction to dabble into the internal matters of political parties?
“This act by the court of appeal is highly repugnant to the spirit and letters of Justice. The Supreme was very correct in reversing the sack of Governor Caleb of Plateau State”, he said.
The apex court set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which voided the election of Governor Mutfwang of Plateau state for being perverse on the grounds that the issue of the primary election that produced Mutfwang was outside the jurisdiction of the lower court.
Besides the apex court pointed out that the validity of nomination and sponsorship were not valid grounds to void an election.
“The court of appeal lacked jurisdiction to entertain it. The issue of sponsorship had elapsed long ago, as the law stipulates that a person challenging the nomination or sponsorship of a candidate for an election must institute the legal action within 14 days from which such illegality was said to have been made.”
The apex court in addition explained that the petitioners not being members of the PDP have no locus to challenge the primary election of the PDP.
On the issue of whether the order of the Plateau State High Court could affect the National Executive Committee (NEC), the apex court held that the appellate court was wrong in holding that the order affects the NEC and stressed that the issue of the primary was an internal matter of political parties which both the tribunal and Court of Appeal lacked jurisdiction.
The court, in the Judgement delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim on Friday, pointed out that contrary to the claim of the petitioners and the judgment of the appellate court, the order of the Plateau High Court was not disobeyed by the PDP as evidence showed that a fresh primary was conducted.
Meanwhile, Presiding Justice of the panel of the Supreme Court, Justice John Inyang Okoro also reacting, lamented that “a lot of people have suffered” because of the wrongful judgments of the appellate court which had sacked several legislators who won elections under the platform of the PDP.
Justice Helen Ogunwumiju also berated the appellate court for going into the issue of nomination and sponsorship despite several decisions of the apex court to the effect that a political party cannot challenge the primary election of another.
INEC had on March 20, 2023, declared Caleb Mutfwang of the PDP as the winner of the Plateau governorship election after he scored 525,299 votes, against the 481,370 votes of the APC and its candidate, Nentawe Goshwe.
In its judgment last September, the three-member panel of the Plateau tribunal had affirmed Mutfwang’s election and dismissed Goshwe’s petition for being incompetent and lacking in merit.
Not satisfied the petitioners proceeded to the appellate court where the three panels voided the judgment of the tribunal and ordered the sack of Mutfwang as governor on grounds of illegal nomination.
The appellate court had agreed with the appellants that the primary election that produced Mutfwang as the candidate of the PDP was illegal, unlawful and constituted in violation of a court order and subsequently ordered INEC to issue a fresh Certificate of Return to Goshwe after withdrawing the earlier one issued to Mutfwang.
Dissatisfied, Mutfwang approached the apex court to set aside the judgment of the appellate court on the grounds that the issue of qualification was a pre-election matter, adding that the party did not at any time violate the order of the court regarding organising fresh congress.
The apex court agreed with him, set aside the judgement of the Court of Appeal and affirmed his election as governor of Plateau State.
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