Aondoakaa: Praising Tinubu for Not Interfering in Supreme Court Judgements a Disservice

Wale Igbintade

Former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Michael Aondoakaa (SAN) yesterday cautioned those thanking President Bola  Tinubu for not interfering in the Supreme Court judgement in Kano and others to desist.
According to him, such insinuation was capable of eroding the confidence of the electorate in the judiciary since it was purely a judicial matter and Tinubu could never have interfered as a true democrat.

Speaking during an interview on the programme, News Day on ARISE Television, Aondoakaa  advised the National Judicial Council (NJC) to urgently take steps to bring judges to adhere to precedence set by the Supreme Court to stem the tide of miscarriage of justice.
“Politicians simply do not like giving credit to whom it’s due. Dragging Mr. President into a purely judicial matter is unfortunate. The president is not supposed to interfere in judicial matters especially as it relates to elections. As a true democrat who fought for democracy even during the military era, Tinubu could never have thought of interfering.

“Those thanking the president for not interfering are eroding people’s confidence in the judiciary. They are doing the president disservice by implying that he chooses those to support.
“ Nigerians should rather thank the justices of Supreme Court for acting promptly and preventing Nigeria from sliding into a one party state. The justices of the Supreme Court are men of integrity who cannot be compromised,” he said.

In the case of Plateau State where some People Democratic Party (PDP) lawmakers lost their seats to the All Progressives Congress (APC), the former AGF opined that “any judgement given with lack of jurisdiction is in nullity.

He added: “The court that gave that judgment has inherent jurisdiction to set aside the judgment.
“Since the Supreme Court has ruled that the election tribunal lacked jurisdiction to determine the validity of the primary elections conducted by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the lawmakers should approach the Appeal Court, Plateau Division with the Judgement of the Supreme Court and have the judgment set aside.

“Since the tribunal had no jurisdiction, the Appeal Court also had no jurisdiction to entertain the matter. The lawmakers can therefore file an application at the Appeal Court except for the time bound nature of electoral matters,” he added.
On the seeming inconsistency in judgments and disregard for judicial precedents by some Appeal Court justices, the legal luminary advocated “judicial education”.

He stated that this can be done through seminars and workshops.  He also advocated “judicial discipline” as a tool for harmonising judgements of the different divisions of the Appeal Court and strict adherence to judicial precedents.