The Supreme Court on Tuesday made it abundantly clear that the shift of tribunals from election violence-prone states to Abuja was legally proper as it dismissed the appeal filed by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that challenged the decision of Rivers tribunal which sat throughout in Abuja.
This even as the Rivers State chapter of the PDP has urged its members to be calm and law abiding, despite the verdict.
However, the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state, has lauded the Supreme Court ruling.
Five states – Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Taraba, Yobe and Borno, had their tribunals sit in Abuja. However the decision of Rivers State governorship election tribunal which also sat in Abuja as against Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, was challenged at the Court of Appeal, which dismissed the appeal for lack of merit.
Dissatisfied, Gov. Wike and the PDP had approached the apex court to revert the decision of Court of Appeal.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday held that the appeal lacked merit and substance and consequently dismissed the appeal in its entirety.
Delivering judgment on the interlocutory appeal, Justice Amiru Sanusi, said that the decision relocating the venue of the tribunal was in order for security reasons.
Justice Sanusi said that President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bukachuwa, was right in her decision that the tribunal should sit in Abuja instead of Port Harcourt for the protection of lives of the tribunal members and the court spectators.
The judgment of Justice Sanusi which was unanimously adopted by other members of the panel said the appeal lacked merit.
Justice Amiru Sanusi held that evidence abound that there were security challenges prevailing in Rivers State as at the time the panel was constituted.
He further held that the court was not bound in the decision in Ibori’s case which was cited by the appellant.
The court further noted that in the Ibori case, it was not the President of the Court of Appeal that relocated the tribunal and that there was no situation of insecurity as at then.
“But in the instant case, it was the President of the Court of Appeal that relocated the tribunal to Abuja because of insecurity, it was this situation that demanded for a doctrine of necessity which made the President of the Court to relocate the tribunal to Abuja to protect the lives of the members of the panel.
“I agree with the Court of Appeal that the President of the Court of Appeal is right in relocating the panel to Abuja.
“On the whole, I hold that the tribunal was properly constituted by the President of the Court of Appeal even without consultation with the Chief Judge of Rivers State or the President of the Customary Court.
“Even though, as at then, there was no Chief Judge, and there was no President of the Customary Court. The consultation here is not as to the venue of the sitting but to get judges in Rivers State that will be part of the various election petition tribunals.
“It is necessary to protect members of the panel from the theatre of war to where their lives will be secured.
“The President of the Court of Appeal, has the power and has judiciously utilized the power.
“The panel is properly constituted and it is not bereft of jurisdiction to hear the petition of the petitioner, the appeal lack merit and it is hereby dismissed”, the court held.
It would be recalled that the tribunal which sat in Abuja last Saturday nullified the April 11 governorship election which produced Nyesom Wike of the PDP as governor. It also ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC to conduct a fresh election within 90 days.
This interlocutory appeal that was dismissed has nothing to do with appeal that arose from Saturday verdict.
Meanwhile, the Rivers State chapter of the PDP on Tuesday urged its members to be calm and law abiding, despite the verdict of the Supreme Court rejecting Wike’s appeal.
The state Chairman of the party, Chief Felix Obuah, made the call in a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media, Mr. Jerry Needam, in Port Harcourt.
It stated that in spite of the verdict against Wike and the state legislators, there was no cause for alarm.
According to the statement, all members of the party and Rivers people should remain resolute because Wike, the legislators and party will be victorious at the end of the day.
“But, we can now see light at the end of the tunnel, and are therefore, not perturbed. We are sure of victory,” it stated.
The statement also said that Wike’s administration was focused and determined to put smiles on the faces of the people.
However, the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state, has lauded the Supreme Court ruling which dismissed Wike appeal seeking to declare as illegal the sitting of the Rivers State Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja.
“As a party, the APC is grateful that all seven eminent jurists of the Supreme Court unanimously agreed that there was sufficient violence before; during and after the elections to justify the relocation of the tribunal to Abuja and that the relocation of the tribunal to Abuja was to safeguard the lives of the tribunal chairman, members and witnesses”.
“The apex court likened the violence in Rivers to that of a theatre of war such as is prevailing in the North-East”, the party said in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Chris Finebone in Port Harcourt on Tuesday.
The APC noted with delight that Justice Okoro from Akwa Ibom State not only concurred but went further to say that Rivers State was a theatre of war and as such protection of life and limbs of members of the panel and interested parties was paramount and thus relocation of the Panel imperative.
The APC also commended the eminent Supreme Court Justices for once again re-affirming that they always dispense justice without fear or favour despite the frequent boasts by Wike that he has all the Justices of the Supreme Court in his pocket, whatever that means.
The significance of all seven eminent Justices of the Supreme Court speaking in one voice in Wednesday’s judgment, according to the APC, is that the faith, hope and confidence of the ordinary Nigerian to get justice is assured in the Nigerian judicial system.
source for Honeyland News