Appeal Court reserves verdict on tenure elongation

[TGD]

 THE Court of Appeal, Abuja Division yesterday reserved sine die (indefinitely) its verdict in the appeal filed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) against five states governors and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) challenging, the decision of the Federal High Court, Abuja Division extending the tenure of the governors until 2012.      

The Federal High Court had on February 23, this year declared that the tenure of five state governors would subsist beyond May 29, 2011 and thus barred INEC from conducting governorship elections in those states.  The beneficiaries are Alhaji Ibrahim Idris (Kogi), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Liyel Imoke (Cross Rivers), Timipre Sylva (Bayelsa).

Dissatisfied with that verdict, INEC had approached the Court of Appeal, seeking to upturn the decision of Mr. Judge Adamu Bello.              

When the matter came up yesterday, all counsel in the matter adopted their written address.

Lead counsel to INEC, A.B Mahmud (SAN), argued that the governors' tenure should be counted right from the time they took the first oath of office adding that the amendment of the constitution affects their term in office contrary to what they are saying that they have acquired certain right that has to be protected.            

He added that none of the affected governors has a personal right as a public servants stating that INEC can't conduct elections under the old constitution but the amended one.

He submitted that the lower court was wrong in arriving at the conclusion that the first oath of office taken was irrelevant and that the amended constitution does not affect them.

Counsel to PDP, Chief Olusola Oke, urged the court to dismiss the appeal for lacking in merit stating that once a Court of Appeal nullifies an election, everything including the oath of office taken is nullified.

Oke added that the calculation of the term of office starts from the date of the second oath of office in as much as the first oath had been nullified by a competent court.        

He added that the constitution cannot take retroactive effect.

The panel of five justices of the appeal court headed by Justice Mohammed Garuba after listening to all the parties said that a date for judgment would be communicated to all the counsel in the matter.

The tenure elongation suit was earlier initiated by Idris before others joined with the court consolidating all the individual applications brought by the five governors.        

The five state governors had claimed that their tenure in office should be based on the rerun elections which they won in 2008 following the nullification of their 2007 electoral victory by the Court of Appeal.

The plaintiffs had sued the INEC and PDP seeking legal interpretation of their tenure in office, whether it would be extended beyond May 29 this year.

They had challenged the decision of INEC to conduct governorship elections in their states in April 2011 claiming that their tenure would still subsist beyond 2011.              

They argued that INEC erred to have concluded that their tenure would expire by May notwithstanding that the court voided elections of April 14, 2007.

The lower court ruling on their application held that Idris tenure will now end  on April 5, 2012, Wamako; May 28, 2012, Nyako; April 30, 2012, Sylva; May 29, 2012 and Imoke; August 28, 2012.

Bello held that the tenure of the governors legally started in 2008 when they took fresh oath of office and allegiance following the nullification of their April 14, 2007 elections by the courts, adding that the nullification of the election by the court also nullified the initial oath of office they took as something could not be built on nothing.          

The court further held that since 2007 elections were nullified and set aside by competent courts, the oath of office and allegiance subscribed to by the five governors had been nullified and set aside along with the elections.

He added that in line with section 180 of the 1999 Constitution, the tenure of the governors legally commenced in 2008 and not in 2007 since the 2007 election that brought them into office in the first instance had been declared a nullity.

According to Mr. Judge Bello, the 2007 elections being used by INEC to determine the tenure of the governors did not exist in the eyes of the law having been legally declared null and void by competent courts of law.

He however said although, section 180 of the 1999 constitution was amended in 2010 by the National Assembly and signed into law by the President, the amendment had no effect on the five governors since their re-run elections  were conducted in 2008.

According to him "there was nowhere in the world where a constitution takes retroactive effect as erroneously held by the INEC adding that the said amendment cannot be used to determine the tenure of the governors who took oath of office in 2008."



Source: Appeal Court reserves verdict on tenure elongation