‘Contrary View On Supreme Court Verdict, Academic Exercise’

Any contrary view on last Friday’s sack of five governors by the Supreme Court will amount to mere academic exercise, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Barr. Sabastine Tar Hon has said.

Hon, a Port Harcourt based legal practitioner who spoke with The Tide on Saturday said the decision was final and the parties have no options than to comply with it whether favourable or not.

Governor Timpre Sylva (Bayelsa), Ibrahim Idris (Kogi), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Aliyu Wamako (Sokoto) and Liyel Imoke (Cross Rivers) were sacked by the Supreme Court’s landmark judgment.

The judgement delivered by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Dahiru Musdapher said by the 1999 constitution the governors had completed their tenure on May 29, 2011 and should no longer be in office.

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) said although the Supreme Court may revisit the decision someday, but for now it must be complied with.

According to him, it was the same supreme court that held in 2009 in the case of Labour Party versus Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that when an election is annulled and re-run ordered, both the election and the oath taken are gone”.

“In this case, the original oaths the governors had taken ceased to exist, when they went in for fresh elections and subsequently took fresh oaths of office. There cannot be two oaths in one tenure”, he said.

He, however, said since the Supreme Court is the conscience of the nation which has jurisprudential powers to give even policy decisions the people are bound by the very decision.

The legal practitioner further said that any contrary opinion or view could be regarded as mere academic in nature.