When Appeal Court Drags Judiciary into the Abyss

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has again dragged the Nigerian judiciary whose image is already battered into the abyss with the ridiculous inconsistencies discovered in the Certified True Copy of the court’s majority judgement in the Kano State governorship election, Ejiofor Alike reports

Indications that the election petition disputes in Kano State would be mired in controversies that could taint the integrity of the judiciary had emerged in August when the Chairperson of one of the panels of the Kano National and State House of Assembly Elections Tribunal, sitting in the state, Justice Flora Ngozi Azinge raised the alarm that some lawyers were attempting to bribe judges in her team.

 She stated in the open court that, “money is flying”, adding that “it’s being rumoured that a staff collected N10 million.”

The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) had vowed to launch a probe into her allegation.

The lawyers passed the resolution at the August edition of its National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting presided by its President, Yakubu Maikyau, according to the statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Akorede Lawal.

Unfortunately, similar allegations and counter allegations continued to trail the judgments of the election petition tribunals in the state and nothing was heard of the NBA’s probe.

In the heat of the allegations and counter allegations, the ruling New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) in the state had accused the state governorship election petition tribunal of compromise.

The dispute took a dangerous dimension when the Kano State Commissioner of Lands, Adamu Aliyu, issued a death threat to the judges of the tribunal.

Speaking during a solidarity protest by NNPP supporters, which also doubled as a prayer session for a favourable judgement for the party at the tribunal, the commissioner who alleged that the judges may have been bribed to rule against his party, threatened that if the tribunal judges ruled against his party, they might pay with their lives.

“I am sending this message to the tribunal judges; any judge that allows himself to be used and collect bribes and pass judgement that is not right, we want to tell him he must choose between his life and the bribe money he collected,” the commissioner said in a video posted by both the NNPP and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

But Governor Abba Yusuf acted promptly and sacked the commissioner for issuing death threats to the tribunal judges.

The governor also sacked his Special Adviser on Youth and Sport, Alhaji Yusuf Imam, “for making unguarded and disrespectful statements” on Vice President Kashim Shettima, according to a statement by the state Commissioner for Information, Baba Dantiye.

The tribunal in September, sacked Governor Yusuf and declared the candidate of the APC, Nasir Gawuna, winner of the March 18 governorship poll, and the judgment escalated the tension in the state.

The decision of the three-man panel, led by Justice Oluyemi Akintan-Osadebay, was transmitted virtually from Miller Road, Kano venue of the sitting.

In what seemed like its complicity in what the NNPP had described as surreptitious moves to frustrate its appeal to the Appeal Court and rob it of victory, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) rescinded its decision to appeal against the tribunal decision.

In a letter addressed to the Secretary of Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, and signed by the Head of Department (HOD), Legal, INEC, Suleiman Alkali, on behalf of the Resident Electoral Commissioner, the electoral umpire said it had no reason to appeal the tribunal judgement.

But following the criticisms that trailed this display of partisanship by the commission, the National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, in a statement issued in Abuja, said the letter written by the commission’s Legal Officer of Kano State Office was not authorised.

“We wish to state categorically that the letter was not authorised. It has since been withdrawn and the officer reprimanded,” Olumekun said.

However, INEC did not disclose the nature of the reprimand, strengthening the suspicion that the commission was actually behind the decision of its Kano office.

The dispute took a very shameful dimension when the Appeal Court sitting in Abuja sacked the governor and released Certified True Copy (CTC) of its majority judgement that was full of inconsistencies seen in doctored documents.

In a face-saving effort, the Chief Registrar of the Court of Appeal, Mr. Mohammed Umar Bangari, described the embarrassing inconsistencies as mere clerical errors.

Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), was the first to raise the alarm over the inconsistencies, saying that he was surprised when he read a copy of the judgement, and discovered that the majority judgement set aside the judgement of the lower tribunal and awarded cost in favour of the governor

Falana, who spoke on ARISE NEWS Channel’s Primetime, said the judgment was in favour of the governor, contrary to reports.

The circulation of the controversial CTC heightened political tensions in the state.

The three-member panel of the appellate court had in their majority judgement, dismissed the governor’s appeal against the ruling of the tribunal for lacking in merit.

But in the CTC released to lawyers, some contradictions appeared, which gave verdict in favour of both the governor and the APC candidate.

On page 67 of the extant judgement, the presiding judge declared: “I resolve all the issues in favour of the Appellant (Gov Yusuf Abba Kabir)’ the judgement of the tribunal in petition No: EPT/KN/GOV/01/2023 between the All Progressives Congress (APC) Vs INEC & 2 others delivered on the 20th day of September 2023 is hereby set aside.

“The sum of N1, 000,000.00 (one million naira) only is hereby awarded as costs in favour of the appellant (Gov Abba Kabir Yusuf) and against the 1st respondent (APC),” the judge added.

But in his conclusion, he dismissed the governor’s appeal for lacking in merit.

Supporters of Governor Yusuf and some lawyers alleged that the judges delivered the judgment in favour of Yusuf and the NNPP but were pressured and manipulated to change it favour the APC candidate. They added that in the process of changing it at the last minute, the arguments they canvassed didn’t align with the final conclusion.

In its reaction, the NNPP urged the National Judicial Council (NJC) to review the verdicts.

It alleged that the appeal court judgement was doctored in favour of the APC.

On its part, the APC said it expected the Appeal Court to provide explanations on the errors.

But speaking with some journalists in Abuja, Chief Registrar of the Court of Appeal, Bangari dismissed the contradictions as nothing serious.

He argued that the contradictions did not in any way invalidate the findings and conclusion of the court.

Despite the chief registrar’s face-saving effort, the CTC showed that the contradictions might have resulted from the doctoring of the judgment to favour one candidate after it was written in favour of another candidate.

The Appeal Court has dragged the judiciary whose image has already been battered into the abyss with these suspicious contradictions which ordinary law school students could have avoided.

The judgment shows the level of degeneration the Nigerian judiciary has sunk.