The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, has warned lawyers against unnecessary adjournment of court cases insisting that the Supreme Court was already full of pending cases till 2021.
The warning is aimed at ensuring the speedy resolution of cases at the Supreme Court, the official said.
According to the directive, lawyers and others involved in the resolution of pending cases must ensure that hearing dates are strictly adhered to and unnecessary adjournments avoided.
Onnoghen’s instruction followed his disclosure that cases currently pending at the apex court may take till 2021 to be resolved, due to enormity of matters still before the court.
He made the disclosure through a statement signed by his special assistant on media, Awassam Bassey, on Monday.
“It is pertinent to state that the Supreme Court diary is full with appeals set down for hearing up to the year 2021.
“The situation therefore leaves no room for unnecessary adjournments arising from lack of diligent prosecution, poor preparations or non-appearance by Counsel.
“Accordingly, the Hon. CJN says this means that any matter that is assigned a date must be heard and determined one way or the other on that date.
”For appeals that may be discovered to have defects, counsel is advised to take necessary steps to amend such defects before the due hearing date”, he said, adding that ”everyone must come to the court fully prepared for the business of the day.”
The statement adds that the NJC has begun publication of pending cases within the court, three months ahead of the hearing dates, as against the weekly publication of cases earlier practiced.
The change is to enable parties prepare accordingly to avoid unnecessary delay of cases.
“On the directives of His Lordship, the Hon. CJN, the Supreme Court of Nigeria has commenced publishing its cause list for up to three months per time on its website, www.supremecourt.gov.ng.
“This is a departure from the former practice where the Court only published weekly Cause List and the Rulings on Applications from Chamber Sitting on the said website.
“The policy, according to the CJN, is deliberately targeted at the speedy dispensation of Justice and its publication is to encourage counsel to take advantage of the initiative and prepare adequately ahead of hearings, to avoid any delays.
“On a related note, the CJN advises counsel to obtain their official legal email addresses if they have not done so yet as communication with and service of processes at the Supreme Court remain only via the legal E-mail. Counsel can get the legal mail at legalmail.nigerianbar.ng; while they can send appeal/motion details to scn/lit.reg.@courts.gov.ng.”
Tag: Supreme Court
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CJN warns lawyers against unnecessary adjournments, says S’Court full with cases till 2021
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Osun Rerun: I’ll apologise, resign if S'Court faults INEC for declaring Oyetola winner– REC
The Resident Electoral Commissioner in Osun State, Mr. Olusegun Agbaje, has vowed to resign his appointment if the Supreme Court finds the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) guilty in the conduct of the recently concluded governorship election in the state.
Agbaje said this in his speech in Osogbo on Wednesday during the presentation of Certificate of Return to the Osun State governor-elect, Gboyega Oyetola, of the All Progressives Congress.
Oyetola and the Deputy Governor-elect, Mr. Benedict Alabi, were given the Certificate of Return by the National Electoral Commissioner representing Oyo, Osun and Ekiti States, Mr. Solomon Soyebi, at the INEC office in Osogbo.
The REC said those who were dissatisfied with the outcome of the election had the right to seek redress at election petition tribunal where their case would be examined by the panel.
Agbaje said he and other INEC officials were very neutral and that they did not do anything to give any of the contestants undue advantage over others.
He said, “Nevertheless, I want to reassure the good people of Osun State, particularly our royal fathers and religious leaders, that I was extremely neutral throughout the period of the election. I can positively stress that my staff also did.
“However, if, at the end of litigation at the Supreme Court of Nigeria, the Commission is found culpable of not discharging its responsibility faithfully and diligently, I will take full responsibility for any such laxity, publicly apologise to all Nigerians and thereafter resign my appointment with the commission.” -
NFF crisis: No Supreme Court order stopping Pinnick – Keyamo
Human rights lawyer Festus Keyamo (SAN) has said there is no Supreme Court order stopping Amaju Pinnick from acting as President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
According to Keyamo, the Supreme Court also never installed Chris Giwa as NFF President, neither were both men parties to any suit where such orders were made.
Keyamo, Pinnick’s lawyer, stated this yesterday in a statement made available to newsmen on the crisis rocking the football house.
The Director, Strategic Communications for the President Muhammadu Buhari’s 2019 presidential campaign, described people making such claims, as “uninformed and/or deliberately mischievous.”
He traced the source of the rumour to two press releases issued by the office of the Minister for Sports, Solomon Dalung, on July 2 and August 21.
He advised “football lovers, stakeholders and the general public” to ignore the reports.
The lawyer further explained that Giwa’s fight to become the NFF President had become academic because Pinnick’s tenure expired last night.
According to him, “the tenure of office which is the subject of dispute of the case filed by Giwa’s group since 2014, lapsed on the 26th of August.”
Keyamo said: “We hereby challenge anybody who disputes this to publish the Supreme Court Judgment or Order where the names of Amaju Pinnick or Chris Giwa were ever mentioned in any portion of the judgment or as even parties to the case. The fact is that the court processes filed in the Supreme Court matter do not bear their names as parties to the suit whatsoever.”
Giwa and Pinnick have been involved in a recurring leadership tussle since 2014 culminating in an appeal reaching the Supreme Court.
“What the Supreme Court did was to relist the case and remit it back to the Federal High Court for expeditious determination on its merits, while firmly declining the Motion brought by the plaintiffs (Giwa) in the matter to invoke its general powers under Section 22 of the Supreme Court Act to deal with the substantive suit,” he added.
Keyamo explained that although the Supreme Court restored all previous orders made in the proceedings in the suit, it did not matter.
He said: “In any event, and much more fundamentally, neither Amaju Pinnick nor Chris Giwa is even mentioned in the said ‘previous’ orders, nor were either of them made parties to the suit and, therefore, would not ordinarily be bound by Orders given in that suit “Another question to be asked is that if Giwa and his team had a Supreme Court Order granting him the right to the NFF Presidency, why would they have to go back to the Federal High Court to surreptitiously procure a fresh ex parte order dated June 5, 2018 for the same purpose and containing reliefs totally different from the “previous” orders of 19th day of September 2014?”
The lawyer stated that an ex parte order obtained by Giwa on July 2, expired after 14 days.
“The implication of the foregoing is that the Interim Order which Chris Giwa and his team are parading as entitling them to the leadership of the NFF automatically lapsed on the 16th of July, 2018,” Keyamo said.
The lawyer accused Giwa’s team of delaying the court case.
He said: “Since the 2nd of July, 2018, the court has sat four times (July 4th 2018; July 10th, 2018; July 31st 2018 and; August 17th 2018). However, neither the matter nor motions have been heard, with the case always adjourned.
“These adjournments happened at the behest of Giwa’s lawyers, who obviously are not interested in hearing the matter, thus always raising one technical issue or the other to ensure adjournment of the matter (which they always celebrated as if the case had been decided).
“Meanwhile, all this while, they were busy in Abuja parading themselves as court-recognised NFF based on an expired ex-parte order while they refused to allow the court to go into the substantive matter to determine it on its merit.”
He said by adjourning the case indefinitely allegedly at Giwa’s behest, the Federal High Court had not complied with the order of the Supreme Court to hear the matter on time.
“In summary, it should, therefore, be noted that the court gave an ex-parte interim order removing someone who is not party to a suit from office, installing another who is not party to the suit, declined to take the motion challenging that interim order and then adjourned the matter sine die (indefinitely).”
He debunked a claim by Dalung that both parties (Giwa and Amaju) went to the court and have benefited at one point or the other in this regard.
He said: “This is definitely a non-factual statement as Amaju Pinnick and his Board have never ever taken football matters to court or sued any person in an ordinary court of law over football matters.
“Amaju Pinnick and his Board are, however, duty bound to respond to any court Summons and appear before the court to explain to the court that the matter, such as this, is a football matter not subject to the court’s jurisdiction.
“This was what was done since 2014 when Giwa’s group sued the NFF. Unfortunately, this motion is still pending before the court in the lamentable circumstances recounted here previously.”
Keyamo stated that his client was not bothered by the threat of contempt proceedings by Chris Giwa and his team, describing it as ’empty’.
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RSG charges Joe Igbokwe over Wike bribing Supreme Court Justices
Rivers State Government has challenged Mr Joe Igbokwe, Publicity Secretary of Lagos State APC to be bold enough to name the Supreme Court Justices he said Governor Nyesom Wike bribed.
In a Facebook post Monday 16th July, 2018 Joe Igbokwe wrote “WIKE WILL NOT HAVE THE AUDACITY AND THE TEMERITY TO KILL AGAIN IN RIVERS STATE AND RUN TO SUPREME COURT TO BUY JUSTICE. IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN IN NIGERIA WHERE BUHARI IS THE PRESIDENT!”
However, in a swift reaction, Rivers State Government through the Commissioner for Information and Communications Emma Okah described Igbokwe’s comments as satanic and a product of a demented brain and is designed to ridicule the Supreme Court of Nigeria and desparage the entire judiciary.
“It takes a lunatic or one whose vision of reality is distorted to disgrace the Supreme Court and paint the Nation’s Judiciary black in a bid to bring down a sitting Governor whose only offence is that he has asked that things be done right in Nigeria” Okah said
Certainly Joe Igbokwe belongs to the axis of evil that sees nothing wrong in the killing of fellow Nigerians especially his kinsmen and that is why he carelessly brands a governor as a killer even without any iota of evidence.
According to Okah, responding to Joe Igbokwe who talks before he thinks belittles our dignity as a government but reluctantly, we have taken this opportunity to berate him so that Nigerians will appreciate the devastation such ungodly comments bring to a revered national institution like the Supreme Court.
Joe Igbokwe and his sponsors in their hallucinations cannot come to terms that Gov Nyesom Wike has remained the conscience of Nigeria’s democracy and delivered more projects and dividends than any Governor since 2015.
It is for this reason that his base and malicious reference to Governor Nyesom Wike as a killer remains worthless and empty.
Irrespective of what happened in Ekiti State last Saturday, Joe Igbokwe has no moral justification to insult Governor Wike in the reckless manner that he did without provocation.
“In the event he fails within seven days to name the Supreme Court Justices he said Gov Wike gave money or the persons killed by the Governor, Joe Igbokwe will hear from us” Okah said.
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Supreme Court discharges, acquits man convicted of murder at age 12
The Supreme Court on Friday discharged and acquitted Yusuf Musa who was convicted of murder at the age of 12.
Delivering judgment, Justice Ejembi Eko held that the appeal had merit.
Eko, who read the lead judgment prepared by Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, said both the Jigawa High Court and the Court of Appeal Kaduna, should have handled the matter better than they did.
According to him, no legal precedence supports the decision of the court of appeal which orders the detention of the appellant at the pleasure of the state governor.
He also said sufficient evidence was not adduced to warrant the conviction and sentencing of a minor to death by hanging.
According to him, the court of appeal had done well to have dismissed the death sentence but was wrong to have ordered the indefinite detention of the appellant.
“The appeal is meritorious and, therefore, the appellant is discharged and acquitted,’’ the judge said.
The appeal was against the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Kaduna, delivered on June 27, 2014.
The lower court had ordered that the appellant remained in detention at the state governor’s pleasure as the appellant was 12 years at the time of his conviction and sentence by the trial court.
The appellant was arraigned before Justice Ubale Taura for the offence of culpable homicide punishable with death under Section 221 (b) of the Penal Code applicable to the state.
The trial court, however, activated the full wrath of the law by convicting and sentencing the appellant to death by hanging on December 23, 2008.
The court of appeal however partially upheld the judgment of the trial court by dismissing the death sentence passed on the appellant and ordering his indefinite detention by the governor.
The appellant was accused of doing an illegal act by hitting one Muhammed Hamza on the head and other parts of the body with a stick which led to his death.
Musa (appellant) had however pleaded not guilty to the charges as according to him, his action against the deceased was a self-defence and not with intention to kill him.
The appellant had asked the court to determine whether the lower court evaluated the evidence and defence of provocation raised in his extra-judicial statement before affirming the decision of the trial court.
He also asked the court to determine whether from the facts and circumstance of his case the lower court was right in ordering that a minor be detained in prison at the pleasure of the governor.
Damian Dodo (SAN), counsel to the appellant, argued that culpable homicide was not punishable with death if the offender’s action was triggered by clear provocation.
He further argued that the trial judge and the justices of the appeal court did not properly consider the issue of provocation as provided in Section 222 (1) of the penal code.
Mr Dodo had also submitted that there were material contradictions in the inadmissible evidence of the prosecution witnesses.
Musa Imam, the prosecutor, on his part, submitted that the defence of provocation could not be hung on the air without supporting evidence.
Imam argued that such defence could not also be built on scanty foundations as done by the appellant.
He submitted that it was the duty of the accused person to adduce credible or positive evidence to support the alleged provocation.
“Where the accused person fails to adduce evidence in support of his defence, as in the present case, the trial court has to rely on the evidence before it adduced by the prosecution,’’ he said.
He said the appellant did not raise any defence of provocation at the trial court, adding that the trial judge “suo moto’’ raised it for him.
He further submitted that the judge went ahead to consider and evaluate same and found out that it could not avail the appellant.
The appellant had in a deposition claimed that he only used a stick meant for the rearing of his father’s cattle to safeguard his life.
He said the deceased, also a cattle rarer, had vigorously hit him multiple times with a similar stick to avenge for a fight he (Musa) had with his younger brother the previous day.
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President Buhari hails Saraki over victory at Supreme court
President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday said the country’s judicial system is truly working and no one should be allowed to undermine or break it, no matter the challenges it faces.
The President’ Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, in a statement in Abuja, said Buhari made the statement while reacting to Friday’s Supreme Court verdict on Senate President Bukola Saraki.
The Supreme Court had, on Friday, discharge the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, of charges in the case of false assets declaration at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).
The President said the Senate President’s journey from the lowest to the highest court of the land provided an important example for Nigerians to emulate.
Buhari said: “I have seen many instances where individuals and groups seek the destruction of the judicial institution in the foolish thinking of saving their skin, instead of going through the painstaking process of establishing their innocence.
“In the case of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, I have seen him take the tortuous path of using the judicial process.
“He persevered, and in the end, the highest court of the land, the Supreme Court, says he is not guilty as charged.
“This is what I have done in the three elections in which I was cheated out, before God made it possible for me to come here the fourth time I ran for the office”
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False Asset Trial: Saraki’s victory at Supreme Court shows judiciary is working – Buhari
President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday reacted to the Supreme Court’s acquittal of the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, saying the nation’s judicial system is working despite the challenges at hand.
He said no one should be allowed to undermine or break the judicial system.
Buhari said this in a statement made available to journalists by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu.
The President noted that Saraki took what he described as the tortuous path of using the judicial process and persevered until the highest court in the land pronounced him not guilty.
Buhari recalled that he himself took the same path in the three elections during which he claimed he was rigged out before finally making it at the fourth attempt.
The President said, “I have seen many instances where individuals and groups seek the destruction of the judicial institution in the foolish thinking of saving their skin, instead of going through the painstaking process of establishing their innocence.
“In the case of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, I have seen him take the tortuous path of using the judicial process.
“He persevered, and in the end, the highest court of the land, the Supreme Court, says he is not guilty as charged.
“This is what I have done in the three elections in which I was cheated out before God made it possible for me to come here the fourth time I ran for the office.”
The President said Saraki’s journey from the lowest to the highest court of the land provided an important example for Nigerians to emulate.
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Saraki gives reason for fallout with Goodluck Jonathan
Senate President Bukola Saraki has given reason for his fallout with former President Goodluck Jonathan in a spat that climaxed in 2015 leading to the presidential elections of that year.
In a statement personally signed by him, Saraki said the fracas between him and former President Jonathan was not unconnected to the fuel subsidy scam.
“In the history of this country, the highest fraud, the most brazen corruption has been the Fuel Subsidy scam. No one wanted to talk about it or confront entrenched powers.
“As a Senator on the platform of the ruling party at that time, I sponsored a motion on the floor of the Senate calling for investigation that led to the unprecedented exposure of the massive corruption in the fuel subsidy regime.
“That was my only point of departure with the former President,” Saraki stated.
In the statement after the judgement of the Supreme Court which upheld the earlier decision of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) discharging and acquitting him of 18 charges instituted against him, Saraki said he believes in fighting corruption and that he has made his own humble contributions to the fight against corruption.
“I believe in fighting corruption and I have made my own humble contributions to the fight against corruption in this country.
“As a presidential aide, I initiated the process that led to the enactment of the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
“I was the first governor to establish the Price Intelligence Unit which later metamorphosed into the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) at the federal level,” he said.
Saraki reiterated his confidence in the judicial process and the ability of the Judiciary to do justice to all manners of men and in all circumstances.
He expressed gratitude to all Nigerians who have supported him since his CCT case commenced three years ago.
“At the end of a tortuous journey of 1018 Days counting from September 22, 2015 when the case began at the Tribunal, I am happy that I have been vindicated. The Supreme Court has affirmed that there is no evidence of false declaration of assets. The court also observed that certain agents took over the responsibility of the Code of Conduct Bureau in this trial, and one can infer that this was done towards a pre-determined end.
“This outcome has gladdened my heart and further strengthened my belief in this country and as well as my faith in Almighty Allah, who is the righter of all wrongs. God has vindicated me today before the judgement of man, and I am most thankful and humbled at His grace and infinite mercies.
“Through it all, I refused to be shaken, knowing, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, that the arch of the moral universe may be long, but it bends towards justice. I knew the day would come when justice would prevail and I would be exonerated.
“I have always believed in the infallibility of our Judiciary, secure in the knowledge that our courts – the last refuge of the oppressed – would never condemn the innocent. This outcome is also a vindication of my belief in the rule of law.
“As I said in my first appearance at the CCT, this is a politically motivated case. The case was trumped up in the first instance because of my emergence as the President of the Senate against the wishes of certain forces. Ordinarily, I doubt anyone would be interested in the asset declaration form I filled over 15 years ago.
“What we have seen is the opposite. Instead of working together in the interest of the nation and to seek to do better for our people, we are fighting one another and using legal instruments to mount baseless accusations against one another. Instead of exhibiting the need for unity and working day and night for that purpose, we are stoking the fire of division and rancour. I maintain that, above all else, my CCT trial has been a flagrant vilification of my person, and shows that some people are after their personal interests rather than the national interest.
“As a result of the war of attrition, various arms of government have wasted resources needlessly. It has been three wasted years across board in this country. Three years that would have been devoted to tackling issues affecting Nigerians, including: economic recovery, insecurity, youth unemployment and strengthening national institutions – were wasted on malicious prosecution. People were ready to trade off three years that would have been devoted to fostering cooperation, unity and economic progress for their selfish ends. It is my hope that those who are behind my persecution will see the handwriting on the wall and leave me to do the work for which I was elected, so I can continue to give my all to this great country of ours.
“As many have rightly observed, it is plain to see that the anti-corruption fight is being prosecuted with vindictiveness, to target perceived political opponents. I believe in the need to fight corruption, but I will never be party to the selective application of the law or the rhetoric of an insincere anti-corruption fight.
“My antecedents speak for themselves.
“I thank Nigerians for standing by me through the difficult period of this trial. The support of ordinary Nigerians and their faith in me, as well as their sophistication and discernment in seeing this case for what it was, has been a source of strength to me.
“I am most grateful for the support of my Distinguished Colleagues and the Honourable Members of the 8th National Assembly for their unflinching support and regular attendance at the various proceedings. They were unfairly criticised for accompanying me on court appearances, but it is now clear that they did so because they believed that injustice to one, is injustice to all. They have been the true embodiment of esprit de corps. I thank them for banding together in the face of an unconscionable attack on the institution of the legislature.
“I thank my legal team for their determined and principled stance, and for their knowledge and diligence, which saw this case to its just conclusion. My gratitude to all my friends, political associates, supporters and the good people of Kwara State – all of whom have been solidly behind me.
“I thank my family for enduring this trial with their usual grace and fortitude. My immense gratitude also goes to the international community for their interest in this case. The Nigerian press have kept watch and I appreciate their vigilance in ensuring that all the facts were held up to scrutiny.
“To my supporters, yes, there is a reason to rejoice, but our celebration must be tempered with the sobering lessons of the attempted injustice from Day One of this trial. We all have to canvas for fairness in the fight against corruption. We should see this verdict as an inspiration to champion the rule of law, promote democracy and its institutions as well as tolerance of divergent views.
“The overwhelming support of so many, and the insistence on ensuring that due process and truth prevailed, has made this verdict possible,” he stated.
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Supreme Court confirms three Bakassi Boys’ death penalty
The Supreme Court on Friday confirms the death penalty imposed on three members of Bakassi Boys vigilante group in 2006.
The High Court of Abia State had, on February 26, 2006, sentenced the three men to death for the murder of two persons which they were said to have apprehended for an alleged crime.
A five-man panel of the apex court led by Justice Dattijo Muhammad unanimously ruled that the three men truly committed murder and deserved the death sentence imposed on them.
Describing the Bakassi Boys as “a lawless group,” Justice Amina Augie, who delivered the judgment of the apex court, said, “the Bakassi Boys are nothing but outlaws.”
She said they were “lawless persons operating outside the law, who desecrate the laws of the land in their unlawful and misguided quest to dispense justice by killing alleged criminals.”
The three men — Emmanuel Eze, Adiele Ndubuisi and Stanley Azuogu — had separately approached the Court of Appeal challenging the judgment of the High Court.
But the Court of Appeal, in May 2010, dismissed their appeals and affirmed the death penalty imposed on them.
They further appealed to the Supreme Court praying the apex court to substitute the conviction on murder charge with a conviction on manslaughter, which would have attracted custodial sentence instead of the death penalty.
They had premised their appeal on the grounds that they were incited to kill the deceased by the Abia State Government.
But delivering the Supreme Court’s separate lead judgments on each of the three appellants’ appeals on Friday, Justice Augie said their line of defence, anchored on the grounds of provocation, was baseless.
She held that in the absence of anything said or done by the deceased in the presence of the Bakassi Boys making the assailants “to suddenly and temporarily lose their passion or self-control,” the defence anchored on provocation could not fly.
While ruling on one of the appeals, she said, “The appellant admitted that the Bakassi vigilante group, to which he belonged was an unlawful association that dealt with alleged criminals with extreme measures which flagrantly breached the provision of the law on fair hearing,”
She added, “Having desecrated the laws of the land with such relish and reckless abandon, and been convicted for murder, the appellant is urging this court to allow the appeal, set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal delivered on May 5, 2010 and substitute his conviction on manslaughter, since he was incited by a third party.
“There are a few things that were wrong with that line of defence.
“First of all, it was more of implicating the Abia State Government in the offence they have committed rather than a valid defence in law.
“Secondly, the learned trial judge, C.L Ubaraje, as he then was, debunked his insinuation that the Abia State Government had a hand in the killing of the deceased persons.
“Finally and more importantly, the defence of provocation to avail the appellant, there must be something said or done by the deceased persons in his presence which caused the appellant to suddenly and temporarily lose his passion and self-control.
“In other words, the appellant said he was incited by the Abia State Government to kill the two deceased persons who did not do or say anything to him to him or other Bakassi boys before they were savagely killed cannot amount to provocation and his attempt to convince this court otherwise failed woefully.
“The respondent (the prosecution – Abia State Government) is right.
“The appellant embarked on a futile journey of proving provocation which does not arise in this case as the testimony of the prosecution witnesses confirmed that the appellant and his cohorts committed the said charge with utmost dispatch and babarity without any provocation or incitement.
“This appeal totally lacks merit and is dismissed.”
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Dogara congratulates Saraki on Supreme Court victory
… Says judgment has reinforced confidence in judiciary as last hope of common man
Speaker of the House of Representatives Hon Yakubu Dogara, has congratulated the President of the Senate Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki on his victory at the Supreme Court.
In a statement issued on Friday, Speaker Dogara said he received the news of the apex court’s verdict with joy.
The judgment of the Supreme Court today has once again reinforced our confidence and belief in the nation’s judiciary as the last hope of the common man.
As Democrats, this has again reaffirmed the independence of the judiciary as protected by our constitution under the doctrine of separation of powers and principles of checks and balances.
No doubt, the Supreme Court’s judgement will help in no small way in strengthening the independence of the legislature as the first organ of government under our constitutional democracy and presidential system of government.
The almost three years trial has now been finally put to rest and has shown that no matter the allegations only the truth prevails in the end.
He commended the doggedness and fighting spirit exhibited by senator Saraki who refused to be distracted by the long trial and remained resolute and focused on his legislative duties as president of the Senate.
Dogara urged Saraki to see the trial as a test to his leadership, forgive and put it behind.