Leadership (Abuja)
Danladi Ndayebo
12 May 2008
The Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), at the weekend linked the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Umaru Abdullahi, to the controversial verdict of the Appeal Court in Kaduna which returned Governor Saidu Nasamu Dakingari as the duly elected governor of Kebbi State. is no democracy where people's vote do not count," CNPP concluded.
Dakingari, a son-in-law of President Umaru Yar'Adua, got a favourable judgement from the same court which sacked former governor Aliyu Magatakarda Wammako of Sokoto State in two separete matter, which legal experts contend are very similar.
Justice Abdullahi had last Tuesday decried increasing number of petitions against judges, dismissing petitioners as frustrated politicians.
"If they lose, they begin to write all sorts of petitions against the judges to malign them. You have heard from the chairmen of the House and Senate Committees on Judiciary... these things are mere fluke. I don't think it is fair on judges," he said.
But the CNPP, in a reaction yesterday, said the appeal court president was trying to defend the indefensible, even as it urged him to come clean on the allegation.
"What of the petition emanating from the Sokoto and Kebbi states Appeal Court warped judgements where Justice Abdulahi himself is fingered? Is he trying to be a judge in his own case? Can he give himself a clean bill of health?" It queried in a statement signed by its national publicity secretary, Mr. Osita Okechukwu.
CNPP also alleged that judges like Abdulahi were used to delivering arbitrary judgements on the bogus premise of doctrine of public interest, "the type that retained Chief Olusegun Obasanjo after the people voted him out in 2003."
The coalition said the learned judge was economical with the truth when he said that most of the petitions were mere fluke and of no merit. It said such comment ought not to have come from a man of Justice Abdullahi's standing since it was capable of making aggrieved politicians resort to self-help.
CNPP reminded the appeal court president that there is no better test of a democratic government than the impartiality and efficiency of its judiciary system.
The impartiality and efficiency of the judiciary, it warned, cannot be achieved by praise-singing, frustrating politicians or blackmail, but by granite judgements that stand the test of time.
"Is he saying that the warped judgements emanating from the election tribunals do not deserve petitions? Is he saying that politicians the system frustrated should resort to self- help?
"What of the petitions that got some judges dismissed by the National Judicial Council? What of the pending N2.3 billion petition from the South-South before the House of Representative Committee on Judiciary, already forwarded to the National Judicial Council (NJC) that accuses even a former Chief Justice of Nigeria and other justices of subversion of justice?" CNPP asked.
It added: "Whereas CNPP cannot submit that all petitions against the judges are genuine or that there are no few impartial judges in our clime, however, we wish to note that on the scale of balance majority of Election Tribunal judges failed to deliver prompt and impartial judgements. They should wake up and assist in the growth of our democracy.
"On our last count, outside judgements bordering on technicalities like wrongful substitution, only Enugu and Edo states governorship and Benue state legislative judgements were judgements that upheld the safeguard provided by the Electoral Act; in spite of glaring irregularities that characterised the elections."
The statement wondered why Justice Abdullahi was trying to justify the result of 2007 general election even when its greatest beneficiary, President Yar'Adua, had adjudged it imperfect.
"Justice Umar Abdullahi should apologize to politicians as his statement in no small measure rather than builds our democracy, weakens it, for there
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