[attachimg=1] In what appears to be a game of intrigues on the tenure elongation legal face-off between the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the electoral umpire may have disowned the reported plan to approach the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, to seek to vacate the judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja, extending the tenure of five state governors beyond May 29, this year.
Indeed, indications are that the lawyer who filed the appeal on behalf of INEC did so on her own and now has been told not to count on INEC's endorsement
Carol Ajie had penultimate week filed a notice of appeal at the appellate court and another application for stay of execution of its judgment before the lower court purportedly on behalf of INEC.
But indications emerged that INEC may not be keen on the legal voyage any more as Barrister Ajie in a statement in Abuja said the Commission asked her not to go on with the motion for stay she filed at the Federal High court pro bono (free of charge).
Reacting to a newspaper report, Ajie said that she wrote the Commission to allow her to file an appeal challenging the judgment of the court.
"I then wrote to Prof. Jega, the Chairman of INEC and Mr. Bowen, the Director, Legal Services of INEC was copied. In it, I told INEC that as an activist lawyer, I will file a notice of appeal on behalf of INEC, this being public interest litigation in an area that the law is recondite. I was not interested in the professional fees, I remarked.
I paid over N50,000 from my personal pocket to process papers, photocopies, and sundry expenses. Happily, I did cutting-edge legal research, well articulating the errors in the judgment and filed a notice of appeal; and upon all the parties being served, most of the press reported it."
Furthermore, she said INEC is not interested in the matter: "I guess it was in exercise of the duties of his office, that Mr. Bowen, INEC Director of Legal Services had called me on my mobile phone thereafter and said INEC does not want the motion for stay of execution and the notice of appeal because the lawyers who did the case at the lower court were handling the matter. There was nothing else I could do; having placed before the public reading audience, the errors in the judgment of Bello J., which I had set to upturn pro bono, to demonstrate that judgment cannot stand, I rest".
A newspaper had reported that the INEC, may have deceived Nigerians when it claimed that it had pleaded with the Court in Abuja to allow it conduct governorship elections in the five states that the court earlier ruled there will be no election.
In a judgment on February 23, Mr. Judge Adamu Bello of the Federal High Court held that governorship elections should not hold in Kogi, Sokoto, Adamawa, Cross River and Bayelsa states until next year.
However, the Commission recently claimed that it asked the court to stop the execution of its judgment. In a motion for stay allegedly filed by, Carol Ajie, claiming to be INEC's lawyer the commission reportedly asked the court to stop the governors from benefiting from the judgment until the Appeal Court decides.
"But if this application is granted by this court, the appellant would perform its statutory duties of conducting elections in the affected states as well as others and the opportunity of a level playing ground afforded to other candidates," INEC was quoted as saying in the petition.
Miss Ajie had argued that if the application was refused, any decision arrived at by the Court of Appeal would have been rendered nugatory by the ruling that extended the tenure of the five governors.
Findings at the court registry over the weekend, however, showed that there was no motion for stay before Mr. Bello.
When asked to confirm the date the motion for stay of execution will be heard, the Court Registrar, having gone through his record, said there was no such motion for stay of execution, stressing that a declarative judgment cannot be stayed.
In his ruling on the case, Mr. Bello had set new dates for the termination of the tenure of the governors. Ibrahim Idris, Kogi, will stay on till April 5, 2012; Aliyu Wammakko, Sokoto, remains till May 28, 2012; Timipre Sylva, Bayelsa, leaves on May 29, 2012; Liyel Imoke's tenure in Cross River terminates on August 28, 2012; and Murtala Nyako, Adamawa, gets his tenure elongated to April 30, 2012.
Mr. Bello held that "there is nowhere in the world where a Constitution takes retroactive effect as erroneously held by the INEC. Amendments to Section 180 of the 1999 Constitution cannot be used to determine the tenure of the governors who took oath of office in 2008."
The five governors had gone to court to challenge the decision of the Commission to conduct governorship elections in their states this year. They said their tenure only began after they won the run-off in their states and should, therefore, not be terminated in May 2011.
They named INEC and the Peoples Democratic Party as first and second defendants.
Source: Intrigues as INEC 'disowns' tenure elongation appeal (http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=42391:intrigues-as-inec-disowns-tenure-elongation-appeal&catid=1:national&Itemid=559)