Nigeria: Presidential Election Verdict - Before the Blackout

analysis

The recent retirement of Justice Oguntade from the Supreme Court evokes memories of the landmark split decision of the apex court on Friday, December 12, 2008. I have decided to reproduce my four-part immediate reaction to the ruling- to honour Justice Oguntade and in the hope that the present bench may be well-guided as we approach 2011 elections...

It is a time-honoured philosophy of the bench that a court of law is bound by the evidence before it. This was once amplified in the glowing words of Niki Tobi (JSC): 'It is not the judicial function of a judge to embark on a voyage of discovery for facts which are not placed before him. A trial judge is not Vasco Dagama, not Christopher Columbus and not a Mungo Park. His duty is to inquire only into the facts placed before him in the court. He is forbidden by our laws to go outside the facts in court to search for more facts with a view to discovering new pastures. He cannot do such a thing.'

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