Outrage over double judgment by Kano Appeal Court

Emmauel Ukudolo, Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023

 

IKEJA, Lagos – Nigerians are outraged by the revelation coming out of the Appeal Court sitting in Kano State. 

They are outraged not because of the double standard but the implication of the pronouncement that seemed to have rubber stamped the mindset of Nigerians that the Judiciary in the country is in a sick mess, reeking of deep rooted corruption, that must either be uprooted or it  throws  this nascent democracy into oblivion.

Last week, the Kano Appeal Court had affirmed the pronouncement of the Governorship Tribunal in Kano which sacked Governor Abba Yusuf of the New Nigerian Peoples Party, NNPP and pronounced candidate of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC,  Nasir Gawuna as the validly elected governor of the state.

The judgment of the Appeal Court, just like that of the tribunal came to many as a rude shock but it was  taken on the face value based on the belief that the justices have the facts of the issues under determination.

The Tribunal had declared 165,663 votes of Yusuf invalid on the grounds that they were neither signed nor stamped by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The governor’s votes were then reduced to 853,939 while those of Nasir Gawuna, his All Progressives Congress (APC) rival, remained at 890,705, hence Gawuna’s emergence.

Counsel to NNPP, Wole Olanipekun, SAN  had asked that the judgment of the tribunal be set aside because it had no precedence  in history, being  the first time a tribunal would annul an election over non-signing of the back of ballot papers.

The Senior Advocate averred that the tribunal also erred because it was the first time that a political party would file a matter without joining its candidate as a party in the petition, yet the candidate would be declared winner of the polls.

While Nigerians were still grappling to understand the judgment, they were shocked beyond their marrows when the Certified True Copies, CTC of the Kano Appeal Court judgment showed the contrary. 

Justice Moore Aseimo Abraham Adumein, Justice Court of Appeal had in the open court with his colleagues declared Gawuna as winner but in the CTC, the matter was resolved in favour of NNPP’s Abba Yusuf, suggesting that the judgment may have either been delivered under duress or the judgment  read to the court was an afterthought after some intervention from superior quarters.

Either way, it shows the sordid state of the Nigerian Judiciary and the need for urgent reform.  Reacting to this strange revelation from the second to the nation’s highest court, former Senator in Kano Central, Senator Shehu Sani said: 

“The Court of Appeal CTC judgment in circulation clearly affirmed the victory of the serving Governor”, warning  that “the Kano matter is a grenade and the pin must be handled with the utmost care.

“Our democracy cannot survive when political interests override our moral and constitutional obligations to uphold the cause and the tenets of justice”, he said. 

Success Sam said Nigerian judges should by now be hiding their heads in shame : “I wonder how these people still find courage to shamelessly wear that wig after all of these money-judgement”.

Former Chairman, National Human Rights Commission, Professor Chidi Odinkalu  summed it up when he said the judiciary is cooked.

“When we say the judiciary in #Nigeria is crooked, people wonder how so. Look: the Court of Appeal in Kano governorship case resolved all the issues ‘in favour of the appellant & against the 1st Respondent.’ Yet it found the appeal lacking in merit & liable to be dismissed. Explain!”.

He continued, “the only way to understand or explain this is that the Court of Appeal changed the judgment after they had concluded deliberations. If this does not persuade people as to how bad things are, I don’t know what will.

According to him, the dots of actors in the unfolding #CriminalScandal of the judgment of the Court of Appeal in the Kano Governorship case are hidden in full view. 

“It must be a coincidence that the Judge who wrote the altered lead judgment in that case  quickly got floated for the #SupremeCourt??

“I am hearing this evening that the court has been asking the lawyers to return the judgment for “correction”. But this does not fall within the ambit of the #SlipRule. This is #JudicialCorruption on the face of the record”, the professor affirmed. 

He is of the view that a corrupt judge is worst than an armed bandit: “A corrupt judge is more harmful to society than a man who runs amok with a dagger in a crowded street. While the man with the dagger can be restrained physically, a corrupt judge deliberately destroys the foundation of society.”

For Nnemeka Edeh, there is no need returning the judgment since it is pure indictment of the court.

 “They shouldn’t return it. This is an indictment against the appeal court,I expected the Kano state governor to rally people around & show resilience. This is unbecoming of our judiciary, a very corrupt arm of government. There’s nothing to correct,this is a certified true copy”, he said. 

In his earlier statement on  television, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Femi Falana called on the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, to defend the integrity of the judiciary by setting up a judicial inquest into alleged public boasting by leaders of the ruling APC that the party had persons in the judiciary, particularly at the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, who would do their bidding on election cases before the courts.