| Andy Uba remains a legally sworn in governor |
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| Written by Ikenna Ellis-Ezenekwe [JP] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, 04 March 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Andy Uba remains a legally sworn in governor By Ikenna Ellis-Ezenekwe [JP] It have become pitiful the extent at which the truth has become smeared and fudged up in a deceptive attempt to hide the consequential facts of the recent Federal Appeals Court ruling in Enugu that upturned the tribunal ruling which nullified the gubernatorial elections of April 14, 2007 in Anambra on the strength of the Supreme Court ruling that rendered a ruling on the interpretation of Governor Peter Obi’s tenure on June 14. 2007. So unfortunate that the propellers of the caustic mischief has racketed the noise decibel to a deafening pitch as they have taken their tales to the many national press outfit to propagate their misinterpretation of the judgment.
At the bone of contention for the folks currently unleashing a fete of propaganda feud is that the Supreme Courts has adjudicated on the gubernatorial elections of April 14, 2007 while rendering its judgment of June 14, 2007 which saw the ouster of Andy Uba from the seat of governor in Anambra State. But the facts indicate it is simply false and dubiously wrong because the dictates of the Nigerian Constitution and that of the Nigerian Electoral Act places squarely the authorities adjudicate over electoral matters on the tribunal and on the federal appeals court should their be a need for an appeal. But the peddlers of misguided propaganda appear not to want this fact known and spoken of.
And in the case of Supreme Court judgment received by Peter Obi, it is important a point be made that the Justices of the Supreme Court only adjudicated on the constitutional interpretation of a governor’s tenure and not on whether the gubernatorial elections conducted in Anambra. It is also important a point be noted that the Justices’ mention of the gubernatorial election as having been conducted in error by the INEC was NOT a Supreme Court decision. The comment was made in passing while rendering the judgment that Peter Obi’s tenure will last till March 2010 and that the seating governor should vacate the seat.
But what the likes of Dr. Chris Ngige, Barrister Zik Obi, Barrister Emeka Ngige [SAN] and others took to town to spread is that Federal Appeals Court in Enugu had delivered a judgment tantamount to an academic exercise while some have termed it a fool’s judgment. Particularly, Ngige called on Andy Uba to not be lost in fool’s paradise via the federal appeals court ruling. And it is understandable because the Ngige brothers are obviously interested parties, and Zik Obi who was once employed under Dr. Chris Ngige reportedly remains on his payroll. So it is expectant on them to muddle up the points and implications of the Federal Appeals ruling because it threatens to spoil their own version of a fool’s paradise come 2010. In one of the attempts to deceive the trusting public, Barrister Emeka Ngige [SAN] gave an interview to the Guardian Newspapers where his response to the question “If the order to make Andy Uba governor-in-waiting was made, will you say it was made in error?” highlights the unabridged desperation.
His words, “Well, if the order was made, it would be an erroneous decision. The judgment will stand in conflict with the judgment of the Supreme Court. You can still ignore the judgment and obey the judgment of the Supreme Court. When there is a conflict between the judgment of the Court of Appeal and that of the Supreme Court, the apex court judgment will prevail. So the authorities, as far as the governorship of Anambra State is concerned, remains bound by the judgment of the Supreme Court. I don't think anybody will say the judgment of the Court of Appeal is superior to the judgment of the Supreme Court. In this respect, reference must be made to Section 287 of the 1999 Constitution, which provides clearly that "The decision of the Supreme Court shall be enforced in any part of the federation by all authorities and persons and by courts with subordinate jurisdiction to that of the Supreme Court". By this, the election tribunal, the Court of Appeal, Andy Uba, Peter Obi, Chris Ngige, and Ukachuwku, all of them are bound by that judgment of the Supreme Court of June 14, 2007, and must be enforced.
In the first place, it ought to be made clear that the federal appeals court ruling does not stand in conflict with the judgment of the Supreme Court. And Barrister Emeka Ngige, who was present at the court on the day of the federal appeals court ruling, knows and understands fully well that the two judgments are not in conflict. So his reference to Section 287 of the 1999 Constitution is baseless. The federal appeals court only adjudicated on the electoral matter brought to its court. It ruled that the gubernatorial election of April 14, 2007 as valid and that the inauguration and swearing in of the then Governor Andy Uba in May 29, 2007 as valid. And through extrapolative deduction, it implies that the election of 2007 stands while that gubernatorial election of 2003 which saw Peter Obi as the winner, also stands.
The Supreme Court ruling stands on its own. The justices of the Supreme Court who ruled that Peter Obi remains governor till March 17, 2010 stated that their was not vacancy in the seat of governor in Anambra State but did not adjudicated on whether the election in Anambra State was indeed free, fair and valid. It only indicated that the electoral exercise ought not to have interfered with the gubernatorial tenure of Peter Obi. And in this light, the tribunal through what seemed like a knee-jerk reaction immediately nullified the election on the strength that the Supreme Court decision. But the federal appeals court in Enugu upon reviewing the tribunal judgment found it to be faulty, and this is while understanding that it did not review the Supreme Court judgment.
In actuality, the federal appeals court judgment aligns with that of the Supreme Court. The only point of slight quarry is over the Supreme Court’s declaration that the election should have not been held since the tenure interpretation case was pending in court. This is as the INEC was faulted by the Supreme Court for going through with the electoral exercise. However the Supreme Court only made the comment in reference to the remaining tenure of Peter Obi which was threatened by the electoral exercise of April 14, 2007. So with respect to the federal appeals court judgment, it respected the judgment of the Supreme Court by not interfering with the Supreme Court judgment by truncating the Peter Obi’s tenure. What it did was to uphold the electoral exercise of April 14, 2007 as credible based on the case brought to it court. It went ahead to upturned the nullification of the electoral exercise and of the swearing in exercise. With this, Andy Uba in essence remains a legally sworn in Governor of Anambra State.
In reference to the above matter, the federal appeals court judgment said, “under the principle of stare decisis, the judgment of the Supreme Court is binding on the lower tribunal but is not license for the tribunal to now add to the judgment what it does not contain. The tribunal did not also have the power to interpret the apex court’s judgment beyond the case put forward by the parties before it”. The judgment continues to elucidate that “even though the judgment of the Supreme Court is binding on all courts, you can only apply it when the issue and the facts are the same and in the present case, the issue before the election tribunal is election petition in Anambra State and that election petition in Anambra was not before the Supreme Court. The parties in the election petition were not the parties in the Supreme Court case and the issues before the apex court were not the same as the one before the tribunal, while the reliefs sought were not the same relief sought before the tribunal”.
Ikenna Ellis-Ezenekwe, a USA based environmentalist wrote from Anambra State
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Posted by Robot| 04.03.2008 14:47