S’Court Can’t Change Its Own Ruling, Says Yusuf Ali

Hammed Shittu in Ilorin

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and  constitutional lawyer, Mallam Yusuf Olaolu Ali at the weekend said that the Supreme Court cannot change the substance of its own judgment.

Ali who spoke with journalists yesterday in his residence at Ilorin, Kwara State capital, during a luncheon he organised in honour of the newly appointed Vice Chancellor of University of Abuja, Professor Andulrasheed Na’alla was speaking on the chances of the governorship candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Imo State, Hon. Emeka Ihedioa who was awaiting the review of his case before the Supreme Court tomorrow (Tuesday)

According to him, “the Supreme Court cannot change the substance of his own judgment and they can only correct errors”.

Ali said, “There was this case Adeniji Versus Asiyanbi in 1967 or so; if there are errors the Supreme Court can correct it and not to change the substance of its own judgment.

“For instance, if the Supreme Court awards a case of land to ‘A,’ you cannot go back and ask it to award it to ‘B’. But if for example in describing the land instead of saying the land is in Oko-olowo, its stated that its in Taiwo then the attention of the Supreme Court can be drawn to such error and it would be corrected.’’

The lawyer added, “There are exceptional cases where you can go back to Supreme Court after judgment, whether their own case falls into that category or not, I don’t know.”

Ali however urged Nigerians to shun  desperate moves  to clinch power at all cost in order to have a peaceful and egalitarian society.

According to him, “Nigerians should respect constituted authority and allow rule of law to prevail in their day-to- day activities”.

 Ali explained that court pronouncements should be obeyed to the letter to entrench sanity in the polity and attributed the cause of some of the nation’s problems to the desperation of Nigerian politicians.