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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
A law professor and former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof Chidi Odinkalu, has disclosed that the Court of Appeal has asked lawyers in the Kano State governorship election petition to return the Certified True Copy (CTC) of its judgement.
Newspeakonline had earlier reported that the Court of Appeal created confusion in its CTC judgement by resolving all issues in the appeal in favour of the appellant, Governor Kabir Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), overturning the governorship election petition tribunal’s decision to sack the governor. The All Progressives Congress (APC) was also ordered by the appellate court to pay Yusuf N1 million.
According to the CTC judgement, the appellate court overturned the tribunal’s verdict and resolved all points in the appeal against the first respondent, APC. In the same CTC judgement, the court dismissed Yusuf’s appeal for lacking in merit.
Reacting to the court document on X (previously Twitter), Odinkalu, who lamented the high level degradation of Nigeria’s legal system, stated that the only way to comprehend the Appeal Court’s inconsistency was that the court modified the verdict after the judges had completed deliberations.
“When we say the judiciary in Nigeria is crooked, people wonder how so. Look: the Court of Appeal in the 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!
“The only way to understand or explain this is that the Court of Appeal changed the judgement after they had concluded deliberations. If this does not persuade people as to how bad things are, I don’t know what will.
“I am hearing this evening that the court has been asking the lawyers to return the judgement for “correction.” But this does not fall within the ambit of the Slip Rule. This is Judicial Corruption on the face of the record,” he wrote.
It was widely reported last Friday, November 17, 2023 that the Court of Appeal in Abuja upheld the ruling of the tribunal sacking Yusuf from office.
The court had held that fielding Yusuf was in breach of the Electoral Law as he was not qualified to contest that election.
The verdict comes nearly two months after the tribunal sacked Yusuf and declared the APC candidate, Nasiru Gawuna, as the winner of the March 18 election.