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Tag: Court of Appeal

  • Why Court of Appeal is unfit to rule on Section 84(12)- Worer Obuagbaka

    Why Court of Appeal is unfit to rule on Section 84(12)- Worer Obuagbaka

    A Lagos-based lawyer, Mr Worer Obuagbaka, has explained why the Court of Appeal, Abuja, cannot declare the provision of section 84(12) of the Electoral Act unconstitutional.

     

    Worer, noted that the Court of Appeal may be expressing its opinion.

     

    He asserted that the Court of Appeal, having set aside the judgment of the Federal High Court, FHC, Umuahia, for lack of jurisdiction, cannot deliver a ruling on the same.

    He noted that the media report on Wednesday’s ruling by the Court of Appeal, Abuja, may not be the proper details, hence requesting a certified true copy of the court for more reaction.

     

    In his words: “This may not be the proper report of the judgment. One needs to read the certified true copy of it to know what actually transpired at the Court.

     

    “However going by the report, I believe that the Court of Appeal has restored the provision of section 84(12) of the Nigerian Electoral Act 2022.

     

    “The Court of Appeal, having set aside the judgment of the Federal High Court Umuahia, for lack of jurisdiction , cannot deliver a ruling on same. A court of law cannot approbate and reprobate on the same issue. In fact , you cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stand.

     

    “Therefore, the Court of Appeal cannot declare the provision of section 84(12) of the Electoral Act unconstitutional. The Court may be expressing its opinion, which is not law.”

     

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) had reported that the Court of Appeal, On Wednesday, ruled that Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act is unconstitutional and that it violates Section 42 (1)(a) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

     

    According to the Court of Appeal ruling, Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act denies a class of Nigerian citizens their right to participate in an election.

     

    TNG reports that Section 84(12) provides that political appointees of the president and governors cannot partake in party primary elections.

  • Appeal Court says ex-Executive Director of Projects- NDDC, Tuoyo Omatsuli has case to answer in money laundering charges

    The Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, has upheld the appeal of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and dismissed the ruling of a Federal High Court in Lagos in the case involving a former Executive Director, Projects, Niger Delta Development Commission, Tuoyo Omatsuli.

     

    However, a three-man panel, led by Justice Peter Affem, on Wednesday, discharged Omatsuli on counts 27, 28, and 29 of the charge.

     

    Omatsuli is facing prosecution alongside Francis Momoh, Don Parker Properties Limited, and Building Associates Limited on an amended 45-count charge bordering on conspiracy and money laundering to the tune of N3.6 billion.

     

    The judgment delivered by Justice Festus Ogbuinya held that the ruling of the Lower Court dated November 11, 2020, discharging the respondent of the money laundering charges “is hereby set aside, and he shall enter into his defense accordingly on the same counts.”

     

    The defendants had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

     

    In the trial, the prosecuting counsel, Ekene Iheanacho, called 16 prosecution witnesses, the last being Segun Temitope, a staff member of the Special Control Unit against Money Laundering, who gave his testimony on July 7, 2020.

     

    However, rather than open their defense, the defendants filed a no-case submission, which was heard on October 12, 2020, while the ruling was reserved till November 11, 2020.

     

    In his ruling on November 11, 2020, Justice Saliu Saidu had discharged Omatsuli, saying, “I have gone through the charges preferred against the defendants as well as the evidence of all the 16 prosecution witnesses and I found no reason for the first defendant to enter the defence. Accordingly, the first defendant is hereby discharged.”

     

    The Judge, however, held that the other defendants had a case to answer, but the EFCC appealed the ruling of the lower Court.

     

    The EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, said in a statement that “the Appellate Court, also today, dismissed the applications of Momoh and Building Associates Limited seeking to set aside the ruling of the lower Court on their no-case submission.

     

    “The appellate court, in its ruling, however, affirmed the ruling of the lower court on the no-case submission filed by both Momoh and Building Associates on the grounds their appeal “is bereft of merit” and ordered them to enter their defence, accordingly.”

  • POLICE PENSION FUND: Supreme Court gives nod to six years jail term, N22.9 billion fine, for Yusufu Yakubu

    POLICE PENSION FUND: Supreme Court gives nod to six years jail term, N22.9 billion fine, for Yusufu Yakubu

    The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, upheld a sentence of six years jail term with N22.9 billion fine for a former official of the Police Pension, John Yusufu Yakubu, who was convicted for stealing N25 billion while in office.

     

    A five-member panel of the court unanimously affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeal in Abuja which imposed the sentence in 2018.

     

    Agreeing with the N22.9 billion fine added to six years jail term, Tijjani Abubakar, who read the Supreme Court’s lead judgement, said it was in tandem with the gravity of the offence and its impact on retired police officers who are the victims of the crime.

     

    “It must be made clear that victims are entitled to be compensated. I fully endorse the judgement of the lower court,” Mr Abubakar said.

     

    He described the January 2013 decision of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja, which initially sentenced the pension thief to two years’ imprisonment with an option of N750,000 as a mere slap on the wrist.

     

    Mr Abubakar said the sentence imposed by the High Court was paltry and insignificant.

     

    “Considering the humongous amount stolen, the nature and gravity of the crime and its destructive effect on the country and its impact on retired police officers and the grave breach of public trust, a severe sentence that would deter the further commission of such a crime and prevent the convict from retaining any part of what he stole to avoid him obtaining financial benefit from his crime should be imposed,” Mr Abubakar said.

     

    Other members of the five-member panel led by Helen Ogunwumiju agreed with the lead judgement. Others on the panel were Musa Dattijo Muhammad, Centus Nweze, and Adamu Jauro.

     

    Mr Abubakar read the concurring decisions of the other four members who were all absent from the proceedings on Wednesday.

     

    Another Justice of the Supreme Court, Emmanuel Agim, who was the judge that prepared the Court of Appeal’s lead decision in 2018, was seated beside Mr Abubakar.

     

    Mr Agim was not part of the Supreme Court’s panel that decided Yakubu’s case, but was only present to read other judgements in other appeals he was involved in.

     

    Recall that Mr Yakubu, a former official of the Police Pension, in 2013, pleaded guilty to stealing the humongous amount of pension fund, but walked free after paying a paltry N750,000 fine imposed by the trial court.

     

    He was the only one among other defendants who pleaded guilty to three of the counts filed against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

     

    The trial judge, Abubakar Talba, then of the FCT High Court in Gudu, Abuja, had in his judgement delivered on January 28, 2013, sentenced Mr Yakubu to two years’ imprisonment with an option of an N750,000 fine.

     

    The judgement was widely criticised for imposing the light sentence seen as disproportionate to the gravity of the offence.

     

    Following an appeal filed against the decision by the EFCC, the Court of Appeal in Abuja quashed the sentence given by the High Court and replaced it with six years’ imprisonment in addition to an order for the convict to refund N22.9 billion to the public treasury.

     

    The court agreed with EFCC’s legal team led by Rotimi Jacobs supported by Oluwaleke Atolagbe that the High Court’s decision was unreasonable.

     

    In the decision delivered on March 21, 2018, the Court of Appeal held that “the sentences levied” by the High Court “are light and lenient ones.”

     

    Emmanuel Agim, who read the lead judgement of the three-member panel of the Court of Appeal, noted that the convict admitted to misappropriating or stealing N24 billion but was given the option to pay a fine of N750,000 fine for him to enjoy the huge balance he had in his possession.

     

    He added: “The funds stolen or misappropriated by the convict are police pension funds for the payment of monthly pensions and other retirement benefits of police officers nationwide.

     

    “The theft or misappropriation of over N24billion of that fund would make the prompt payment of monthly pensions to retired police officers very difficult, if not impossible, with attendant hardship and suffering inflicted on such retired officers who rely on their monthly pensions as their only means or source of sustenance in retirement.”

     

    He added that the “hopeless, helpless and dehumanising conditions the crime has put the retired police officers into is obvious”.

     

    He also noted that the offence “has become habitual and widespread amongst government officials in pensions departments of government whose duties are to be in the custody of pension funds and process the payment of gratuities, monthly pensions and other retirement benefits to retired public servants.”

     

    After quashing the sentences imposed by the High Court, the judge imposed two years’ imprisonment on Mr Yakubu for each of the three counts he was convicted on.

     

    He ordered that the sentences shall run consecutively, meaning that the convict would spend the cumulative six years in jail.

     

    Mr Agim also imposed fines of N20 billion, N1.4billion and N1.5billion on the convict in addition to each of the prison terms attached to the three respective counts.

  • Court of Appeal nods over appeal against judgment mandating AGF to delete Section 84 (12) from the amended Electoral Act

    Court of Appeal nods over appeal against judgment mandating AGF to delete Section 84 (12) from the amended Electoral Act

    The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami and others have been restrained by the Court of Appeal from taking steps to frustrate the hearing of an appeal against a judgment mandating the AGF to delete Section 84 (12) from the amended Electoral Act.

     

    A three-member panel of the court, led by Justice Rita Nosakhare Pemu, in a ruling, granted the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) permission to appeal, as an interested party, against the March 18, 2022 judgment by Justice Justice Evelyn Anyadike of the Federal High Court in Umuahia.

     

    The Appeal Court, in the ruling delivered by Owerri division on April 7, 2022, an enrolled copy of which The Nation sighted in Abuja on Sunday, also granted accelerated hearing in the appeal.

     

    The ruling was on a motion marked: CA/OW/87m/2022 filed by the PDP, with Chief Nduka Edede (plaintiff in the suit decided by Justice Anyadike) and the AGF as respondents.

     

    It reads: ” Leave is hereby granted the applicant (PDP) to appeal as person interested in this appeal – CA/OW/87/2022.

     

    “Due to the exigencies of this appeal and its constitutional colourisation, there is need to hear this matter expeditiously.

     

    “Accordingly, the appellant is hereby given up to Tuesday 12th of April, 2022 to file its notice of appeal and the parties are to file their respective briefs of arguments within three days from the date of service of the notice and record of appeal on the respondents.

     

    “Parties should desist from taking any step to frustrate the hearing of the appeal.

     

    “The matter is adjourned to the 4th of May, 2022, for the hearing of the appeal.

     

    “Fresh hearing notice to be issued on the 2nd to the 12th respondents.”

     

    The National Assembly has also indicated its intention to formally appeal the judgment by Justice Anyadike.

     

    Justice Anyadike had, in the March 18 judgment in the suit by Edede, marked: FHC/UM/CS/26/2022 held that Section 18(12) of th amended Electoral Act is unconstitutional and should be struck down.

     

    The judge noted that sections 66(1)(f), 107(1)(f), 137(1)(f) and 182(1)(f) of the 1999 Constitution already stipulated that government appointees seeking to contest elections are only to resign at least 30 days before the election.

     

    She held that any other law that mandates such appointees to resign or leave office at any time before the 30 days provided in the Constitution was unconstitutional and void to the extent of its inconsistency with the clear provisions of the Constitution.

     

    Justice Anyadike then ordered the AGF to delete the said Section 18(12) from the amended Electoral Act.

     

    Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act provides: “No political appointee at any level shall be a voting delegate or be voted for at the convention or congress of any political party for the purpose of the nomination of candidates for any election.”

     

    The PDP has already filed a separate suit before the Federal High Court in Abuja in which it is challenging among others, President Muhammadu Bujari’s request that the National Assembly alters the provision of Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act.

     

    The case marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/247/2022, now before Justice Inyang Ekwo has been adjourned till April 28 for hearing.

  • NBA Official Criticizes Judges, Lawyers for Violating Territorial Jurisdiction, Calls for Disciplinary Steps against Them

    NBA Official Criticizes Judges, Lawyers for Violating Territorial Jurisdiction, Calls for Disciplinary Steps against Them

    A week after Justice Chioma Nwosu-Iheme of the Court of Appeal in Awka openly criticized two State High Court Judges in Jigawa and Imo for allowing lawyers to use their courts for what is known in legal circles as forum shopping, a national official of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has expressed support for punitive actions against the judges and the lawyers involved in the cases.

     

    Dr Monday Ubani, Chairman of the NBA Section of Public Interest and Development Law (SPIDEL), said today in a statement in Lagos signed by Joseph Igwe of Ubani and Co that he shared Justice Nwosu-Iheme’s view that both Justice Musa Ubale of the Jigawa State High Court at Birnin kudu and Justice B.C. Iheka of the Imo State High Court in Owerri should be brought before the National Judicial Council (NJC) to show cause why they should not be disciplined for professional misconduct over their involvement in the Anambra State governorship dispute as regards the leadership of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), the ruling party in Anambra State which had on June 23 nominated Professor Charles Soludo, the former Central Bank of Nigeria governor, as its candidate in the November 6 gubernatorial election in the state.

     

    The legal practitioners, especially the Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANS), who brought the cases before them should be sanctioned for professional misconduct, too, according to the SPIDEL chairman.

     

    The Court of Appeal in Awka and the Anambra State High Court in Awka had issued orders to the National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognize Soludo as the APGA candidate based on his winning almost 94% of the votes at the party’s congress of June 23, but the State High Court at Birnin Kudu, Jigawa State, a court of equal jurisdiction, on June 30 gave a declaratory judgment directing the electoral commission to accept Chukwuma Umeoji, who had earlier in the month been disqualified from the primary election by the APGA Screening Committee, as the party’s candidate.

     

    The Imo State High Court was to issue a similar order on July 30 even without hearing from the APGA chairman recognized by INEC, as the Jigawa court did.

     

    Declared Dr Ubani: “We insist that disciplinary measures, as recommended by Her Lordship, be commenced by the authorities in the NBA and the NJC to act as a check to the incessant embarrassment the legal profession is currently facing in all spheres, and caused by those who are supposed to know and observe the ethics of the profession, whether at the Bar or on the Bench”.

     

    The legal activist has harsh words for Anambra politicians for not having minimum standards of behavior in their pursuit of power, calling them the most litigious in the country since the inception of democratic rule in 1999.

     

    “Every electoral season is usually hot in Anambra State with bizarre happenings”, declared Dr Ubani.

     

    “There are reported instances where parties in cases already decided by the Supreme Court have re-approached the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, to set aside its own decisions”.

     

    Some politicians from the state have actually gone as far as the Ecowas Court of Justice in a desperate move to acquire political power.

     

    The NBA official described the refusal of lawyers, including SANs, to such politicians to advise their clients properly as “shocking and increasingly disgusting, with the resultant effect of cases of a more bizarre nature being filed regularly with impunity by this category of lawyers”.

     

    Former President Goodluck Jonathan is one of prominent Nigerian leaders who have criticized the gross abuse of the judicial process by Anambra politicians, especially during elections.

     

    Commending Justice Nwosu-Iheme for upholding the public good with her pronouncement on forum shopping by lawyers to Anambra politicians, the NBA SPIDEL chairman said, “We can heave a sigh of relief knowing full well that there are still persons in Nigeria that can stand and speak truth to power.

     

    “All hope is not lost for Nigeria”.

  • Court of Appeal Justice Demands Punishment for Jigawa, Imo High Court Judges for Dabbling into Anambra Gubernatorial Matter

    Court of Appeal Justice Demands Punishment for Jigawa, Imo High Court Judges for Dabbling into Anambra Gubernatorial Matter

    Justice Chioma Nwosu-Iheme of the Court of Appeal has demanded punishment for the judge of the Jigawa State High Court, Justice Ubale of Birnin Kudu, and his counterpart in the Imo State judiciary, Justice B. C. Iheka, for what she described as their unprofessional conduct by dabbling into the Anambra State gubernatorial election controversy and for giving consequential judgments on it.

     

    The Court of Appeal justice also wants lawyers who took the cases to the state high courts in Jigawa and Imo states disciplined for professional misbehavior.

     

    Justice Nwosu-Iheme made the demand while ruling today on a motion by Chike Onyemenam (SAN), counsel to Jude Okeke, who claims to be the national chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), to stop the execution of the order made earlier on July 18 by Justice Charles C. Okaa of the Anambra State High Court in Awka directing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognize the former Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Professor Charles Soludo, as the APGA candidate in the November 6 gubernatorial election in the state, in line with the outcome of the June 23 APGA Congress and primary election which Soludo won by almost 94% and monitored by INEC.

    INEC had on July 16 published The Honorable Chukwuma Umeoji of the House of Representatives as the APGA candidate following an order by the Jigawa State High Court on June 28, but was not made known until the eve of the INEC’s unveiling of names of various candidates.

     

    The consequential order was based on the argument that Okeke was the APGA acting national chairman who purportedly took over from one Edozie Njoku.

    INEC, which regulates Nigerian political parties, has no record of either Njoku or Okeke as having ever been the APGA national chairman, as it has in the last few years recognized only Chief Victor Oye as the party’s chairman.

     

    Still, Justice Iheka, presiding over the Imo State High Court in Owerri, on July 30 gave a judgment affirming Okeke as the APGA chairman and Umeoji the party’s gubernatorial candidate.

     

    The Court of Appeal justice accused Anambra politicians of going round the country shopping for judgments to enable them to contest in the November governorship election rather than appear before the courts which have the territorial jurisdiction to entertain the election.

     

    She regretted that some judges and lawyers indulge such politicians and as a result bring the legal profession into public contempt.

     

    Justice Nwosu-Iheme, therefore, called for strong punishments to be meted out to the state high court judges in Jigawa and Imo states who gave judgments on the Anambra APGA controversy and the lawyers who brought the cases before them.

     

  • Buhari approves appointment of 18 Court of Appeal justices

    Buhari approves appointment of 18 Court of Appeal justices

    President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of 18 Court of Appeal justices.

    TheNewsGuru.com, TNG reports that the appointed judges were recommended and interviewed by the National Judicial Council to the President at its 94th meeting.

    The newly appointed justices include;
    1. Bature Gafai
    2. Muhammad Sirajo
    3. Abdul-Azeez Waziri
    4. Yusuf Bashir
    5. Usman Musale
    6. Jauro Wakili
    7. Abba Mohammed
    8. Mohammed Danjuma
    9. Danlami Senchi
    10. Mohammed Abubakar
    11. Hassan Sule
    12. Amadi Ikechukwu
    13. Peter Affen
    14. Sybil Gbagi
    15. Olasumbo Goodluck
    16. Banjoko Adeoti Ibironke
    17. Olabode Adegbehingbe
    18. Bola Ademola

  • BREAKING: Court of Appeal affirms election of Gov. Diri of Bayelsa

    BREAKING: Court of Appeal affirms election of Gov. Diri of Bayelsa

    The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has affirmed the election of Gov. Duoye Diri of Bayelsa.

    The court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has upheld the election of Douye Diri as governor of Bayelsa state.

    In a split judgment on August 17, two out of three judges had upheld the petition filed by Lucky King-George, candidate of the Advanced Nigeria Democratic Party (ANDP), on grounds that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was wrong to have excluded the party from the November 16, 2019 governorship election.

    The tribunal ordered INEC to conduct a fresh poll in the state within 90 days.

    But in three separate appeals, Diri, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and INEC had approached the appellate court seeking to upturn the tribunal’s decision.

    In the lead appeal, Chris Uche, Diri’s counsel, submitted that the petition by the ANDP was statute-barred.

    According to Uche, the ANDP had filed its petition more than five months after the cause of action arose, instead of within 14 days as stated in the Electoral Act.

    PDP, in its appeal filed by Yunus Ustaz, their counsel, drew the court’s attention to the affidavit of the ANDP national chairman, where he admitted that the party had no candidate in the November 16 governorship poll.

    He added that if a rerun is ordered, the ANDP will have nothing to gain because the case has become “academic”.

    INEC, in its own appeal, argued that by the alteration done to section 285 of the 1999 constitution, it has the power to screen and disqualify any candidate wrongly nominated by a political party.

    INEC had explained that it excluded ANDP from the election because David Esinkuma, the party’s deputy governorship candidate who was 34 years old at the time, did not meet the age requirement of 35 years.

    Delivering judgement on Friday, a five-man panel of the appellate court led by Adriza Mshella, upheld Diri’s appeal.

  • Ex-Court of Appeal President, Mamman Nasir is dead

    Ex-Court of Appeal President, Mamman Nasir is dead

    A former President of the Court of Appeal and the District Head of Malumfashi in Katsina State, retired Justice Mamman Nasir, has died at the age of 90.

    The Information Officer, Katsina Emirate Council, Alhaji Ibrahim Bindawa, made the announcement on Saturday in Katsina.

    He said that the late Galadima-Kastina died in the afternoon at the Federal Medical Centre, Katsina, after a protracted illness.

    He said that funeral prayer would be conducted in Malumfashi at 4:00 pm.

    Justice Nasir was born in 1929 and attended Kaduna College where he obtained the West Africa School Certificate in 1947 and later attended the University of Ibadan where he obtained a certificate in Latin.

    He proceeded to the Council of Legal Education in London for his bachelor’s degree in Law in 1956, and was called to the bar – Lincon Inn – in the same year.

    He returned to Nigeria in 1956 and was appointed a Crown Counsel, and in 1961, appointed as Minister of Justice, Northern Nigeria, a position he held for five years before he became the Director of Public Prosecution, Northern Region in 1967, the same year he was appointed Solicitor General, North Central State, now Kaduna State.

    Late Justice Nasir held this position for seven years before he was appointed to the bench of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in 1975.

    In 1978, he was appointed President of the Court of Appeal, a position he held until he retired in 1992 to ascend the throne of Galadima of Katsina and was turbaned on May 9, 1992.

  • BREAKING: Court of Appeal reduces ex-gov Dariye’s jail term

    The Court of Appeal in Abuja has reduced the 14 years sentence against former governor of Plateau State, Senator Joshua Dariye to 10 years.

    The presiding judge, Justice Stephen Adah on Friday reduced the charges in the counts to 10 years, while the terms with two years are reduced to one year each. The sentences are to run concurrently.

    The judge however quashed the governor’s conviction in two of the 15-counts charges against the ex-governer, who is already serving a jail term at the Kuje Prisons in Abuja.

    Senator Dariye was in June sentenced to 14 years imprisonment by an FCT High Court over the misappropration of N2 billion state funds as governor.

    The appellate court is also set to rule on the appeal of former Taraba governor, Reverend Jollie Nyame.

    Details to follow …