Alphonsus Nweze
10 November 2009
Onitsha — The Coalition of Human Rights groups in Anambra State , has warned that the integrity of Nigerian Courts especially the Supreme Court of Nigeria is being rubbished if nothing serious is done to address the upturning of delivered judgments in the courts.
The group under the aegis of Anambra Human Rights Coalition, said in a statement made available to Daily Champion during the weekend that if care is not taken, the power and status of Supreme Court of Nigeria maybe vitiated by the politicians who collude with some elements in the judiciary to procure court verdicts that suits their personal and group interests.
The Coalition particularly lamented the activities of the Appeal Court , stating that the Appellate court has been given contradictory verdicts in similar cases. In the statement signed by seven human rights groups in Anambra state including the Civil Liberties Organization (CLO), Intersociety, Campaign for Democracy (CD) among others, they argued that "going by recent expositions by a national daily on the goings-on inside the chambers of the Nigeria court of Appeal, with respect to the quality of her verdicts on election matters, it appears that the Court of Appeal has become the black sheep of the Nigerian judiciary, followed by the magistrate and Sharia courts. There are also some lordships - traders in our nation's federal and states' high courts.
The group said that in one of the cases between Action Congress (AC) and Jonah Jang of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Appeal Court sitting in Jos, delivered a verdict contrary to Supreme Court precedent with respect to mandatory 30 days which election petitions could be filed.
Based on this, said the group, many election petition cases, filed on the basis of the Supreme Court precedents were lost at the Appeal Courts, courtesy of the Appellate Court's inferior judgment.
They said that the Appeal Court has not been consistent in its judgment on the late arrival of election materials and non-availability of results sheets, on which strength the elections of Senator Liyel Imoke of Cross River and Timipere Sylva of Bayelsa were quashed, but the same court of Appeal upheld the election of Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State on the same ground.
In the case of Kebbi and Sokoto states, the governorship petition were hinged on the same grounds, nomination of candidates, two of them handled by the same Appeal Court , sitting on the same venue and the same day, with the same Judges, yet there was contradictory verdicts.
In the case of Kebbi, the court held that it was a pre-election matter and declined jurisdiction and returned the PDP candidate, while in the case of Sokoto, the same court held that the tribunal has jurisdiction to entertain pre-election matter and nullified the election.
The group noted that, in this country, a Federal High Court Judge gave an order stopping the judgment of Court of Appeal, stressing that if nothing urgent and drastic is done, the Nigeria courts especially the Appeal is fast drifting.
They warned that the consequences will be chaos and disorderliness, stressing that attempts to procure Appeal Court to install Chief Andy Uba as the governor in waiting will spell doom for the state and Nigeria in general.
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