News
Anxiety In Kogi As Supreme Court Decides Gov’s Fate, Today
An air of uneasiness has enveloped Kogi State as parties to the dispute over the last governorship election in the state anxiously await the verdict of the Supreme Court scheduled to be handed down in Abuja, today.
The nation’s apex court is expected to deliver two judgments on the two surviving appeals on the dispute over whether or not the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and incumbent Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, was lawfully returned by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the winner of the November 16, 2019 election.
The first appeal, marked: SC/CV/388/2020, was filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Engr Musa Wada, while the second one was filed by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its candidate, Ms Natasha Akpoti.
The appellants are, among others, praying the court to reverse the judgments of the Court of Appeal, which upheld the decisions of the election tribunal, affirming Bello’s victory at the poll.
There was a third appeal filed by the Democratic People’s Party (DPP) and its candidate, Usman Mohammed, but it did not survive the court’s last proceedings on August 25, 2020.
The appellants’ lawyer, M. S. Ibrahim applied to withdraw it on realising that his clients’ case would not fly.
The appellants had challenged INEC’s disqualification of DPP’s candidate, who was said to be 31 years old as against the 35 years allowed by law.
Upon Ibrahim’s oral application for withdrawal, the court’s seven-man panel, led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Ibrahim Muhammad, struck out the appeal, and awarded N200,000 cost against the appellants and in favour of the APC and Bello.
On the same day, the court entertained arguments from lawyers to parties in the appeals by the PDP and SDP and their candidates, following which it adjourned till August 31, 2020, for judgment in both appeals.
Lawyer to the PDP and Wada, Jibrin Okutepa (SAN), while adopting the appellants’ brief of argument, prayed the court to allow his client’s appeal, and grant the reliefs contained therein.
Okutepa contended, among others, that the five Justices of the Court of Appeal erred in law when they upheld the majority decision of the election tribunal, which validated Bello’s election.
On their part, lawyers to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Bello and APC – Alex Izinyon (SAN), Joseph Daudu (SAN) and Ahmed Raji (SAN) – urged the court to reject the appeal on the grounds that it lacked merit.
They prayed the court to retain the concurrent findings of the Court of Appeal and the majority decision of the tribunal, to the effect that Bello was validly returned as the winner of the election.
Similar arguments were made in relation to the appeal by the SDP and Akpoti
The PDP and Wada, in their appellants’ brief of argument, raised five issues for the court’s determination.
They are: “Whether the Court of Appeal acted without jurisdiction and in breach of the right to fair hearing of the appellants when it considered and determined the appeal before it on issues that did not arise from the majority judgment of the trial tribunal and or the notice and grounds of appeal filed before it.
“Whether the Court of Appeal was right in affirming the decision of the trial tribunal striking out several paragraphs of the appellants’ petition and deeming grounds ‘B’ and ‘C’ of the petition to have been abandoned.
“Whether the Court of Appeal was not in grave error in holding that the evidence of PWl9 (the forensic expert) and his report (exhibit P185A) have no evidential value.
“Considering the peculiar facts and circumstances of this case, whether the court below was right in holding that the failure by the appellants to call polling unit agents in the polling units complained of in the seven contested local government areas of Kogi State is fatal to the petition.
“The Court of Appeal rejected the reasons given by the trial tribunal for not according weight to the evidence of PW19 and exhibit P185A as can be seen on pages 5,175 to 5,176 of the record, volume 12 thereof. But, in breach of the right to fair hearing of the appellants, the court below suo motu (on its own volition) gave its own reasons and discountenanced the evidence of PW19 and exhibit P185A as can be seen on pages 5,175 to 5,176 of the record, volume 12 thereof”.
Izinyon raised two issues for the court’s determination in the first respondent’s brief of argument he filed for INEC.
They are: “Whether the court below was right in law in affirming some of the decisions of the trial tribunal granting the prayers in the various interlocutory applications of the respondents.
“Whether the lower court was right in dismissing the appellants’ appeal, having regard to the state of pleadings and the evidence led by the appellants at the trial tribunal.”
In his second respondent’s brief of argument, Bello raised three issues for the court’s determination.
They are: “Whether the court below considered in its judgment, issues raised suo motu that neither arose from the trial tribunal’s judgment nor raised by the second respondent.
“Whether the court below was right to have arrived at the conclusion that the appellants could not rely on facts and particulars pleaded specifically in support of the already abandoned grounds ‘B’ and ‘C’, relating to non-compliance and corrupt practices, to establish their principal and only surviving ground of complaint to wit: that the second respondent did not score majority of lawful votes in the said election.
“Whether, having regard to the ground of majority of lawful votes relied upon by the appellants, the court below was correct when it affirmed the conclusion of the trial tribunal that the appellants failed to prove that the second respondent was not elected by majority of lawful votes”.
The PDP and Wada had, shortly after INEC announced the result of the election, filed a petition on December 7, 2019, before the Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which sat in Abuja.
On May 23, 2020, the tribunal, in a split decision of two-to-one, dismissed the petition and upheld INEC’s return of Bello as the winner of the election.
The tribunal’s Chairman, Justice Kashim Kaigama, and a member, Justice Baraka Wali, gave the majority decision, while another member, Justice Ohimai Ovbiagele, gave the minority dissenting judgment, upholding the petition and voiding Bello’s election.
The PDP and Wada appealed the majority decision of the tribunal at the Court of Appeal in Abuja.
But in a judgment on July 4, 2020, the appellate court’s five-man panel was unanimous in dismissing the appeal, and proceeded to uphold the majority decision of the tribunal.
On the Court of Appeal’s panel were Justices Adamu Jauro, Haruna Simon Tsammani, Onyekachi Aja Otisi, Elfreda O. Williams-Daudu and Mohammed Lawal Shuaibu.
The PDP and Wada again appealed to the Supreme Court, which heard the case on August 25 and scheduled the judgment for August 31, 2020.
The case by SDP and Akpoti has a similar history but for the fact that there was no split in the tribunal’s decision given on May 18, 2020.
The tribunal was unanimous in dismissing their petition.
On appeal to the Court of Appeal, a five-man panel of the court, in a judgment on July 4, 2020, dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit; a decision the SDP and Akpoti further appealed to the Supreme Court.
The judgment on the same case at the apex court is also slated for today.
The Federal Government has agreed to offer additional N20.5 billion for the completion of the Bonny-Bodo road project in December.
The government, however, said if the construction company, Julius Berger, was not ready to accept the offer, the contract will be terminated.
Minister of Works, David Umahi, said this during a meeting with the Managing Director of Julius Berger, Lars Ritcher and members of Bodo-Bonny Road Peace Committee, on Wednesday in Abuja.
The reports that Julius Berger had requested asking for a N28 billion variation on the 82 per cent completed project.
The company hinged its request on the rise in exchange rate, construction materials, and diesel among others.
Umahi, however, said the government was willing to provide N20 billion out of the N28 billion that Julius Berger requested for.
According to him, the Bonny-Bodo road contract which was initially awarded at the cost of N120 billion in 2015, was later varied at N199 billion with a completion dateline of December 2023, which has since elapsed.
The Tide’s source recalls that in 2017, an agreement between the Federal Government, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) and Julus Berger on modalities for funding the project cost of N199.923 billion, without any further increase.
“If you do not accept the Federal Government’s offer by Friday and resume work on the site, the previously expired 14-day ultimatum for termination of project will be enforced.
“I want to let you know that we are the client. No contractor will dictate for this ministry, and there is no job that is compulsory that a particular contractor must do.
“We give you an offer. If you do not like the offer, you walk away. You don’t force us or we don’t force you.
“Agreement of contractual relationship is a mutual understanding,’’ the minister said.
Umahi said that had Julius Berger adhered to the project timetable, the project would have been completed on schedule before the impact of foreign exchange.
“Our position is very simple, we reject the conditions of Julius Berger totally and we ask Berger to please go back to the site to complete the project based on our offer.
“Our offer is unconditional and we say, accept or reject, so you cannot subject our offer to your conditions ,’’ he added
Umahi said the company should be humble in its dealings and exhibit solidarity during challenges.
Earlier, Richter had explained that the company suspended work on the site to seek some clarifications from the ministry.
According to him, the company asked for the augmemtation of N28 bilion because as at the time the contract was awarded the exchange rate was N305 to a dollar and diesel was N350 eor litre.
“We will still require some outstanding materials; that means that the initial agreement can’t fly because the variation of project is not sufficient and the exchange rate is also not in our favour to compensate the additional costs.
“That is why we decided to go back to our original proposal of the augmentation. Augmentation is a very normal process for all contracts,” the managing director said.
Chief Abel Attoni, Palace Secretary, Bonny Kingdom, expressed gratitude to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over the decision to complete the Bodo-Bonny road project.
Attonu urged the parties to be patriotic and make the necessary sacrifice for the actualisation of the project.
The Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, yesterday, set aside the warrant of arrest against Rt. Hon. Edison Ehie, the Chief of Staff, Government House, Rivers State, and five others.
Justice Emeka Nwite stated this while delivering his ruling in an application seeking to vacate the warrant of arrest which he issued on January 31, 2024.
The Judge said he was misled by the police in ordering the arrest of Ehie in connection with the burning of the Rivers State House of Assembly on October 30, 2023.
The Police, had told the court that Ehie and five others masterminded the bombing of the Rivers State House of Assembly amid a plot to impeach Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara.
The five others are Jinjiri Bala, Happy Benedict, Progress Joseph, Adokiye Oyagiri, and Chibuike Peter, alias Rambo.
Justice Emeka Nwite while setting aside the warrant said it has now become a mere academic exercise.
The judge further granted same to the 2nd to 5th Defendant/Applicant in same suit.
Femi Falana, SAN, and Oluwole Aladedoye, SAN, who appeared for the defendants in separate suits, held that the court lacked the jurisdiction to have granted the order.
While Falana filed a motion seeking an order to set aside the January 31 order by Justice Nwite, Aladedoye applied for a stay of execution of the arrest order.
In a motion marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/112/2024 dated February 2 and filed on February 7 by Falana, Ehie sought two orders, including “an order setting aside the order made on January 31 for want of jurisdiction.
“An order of this honourable court staying the execution of the order made on the 31st January 2024, pending the hearing and determination of this application.”
Giving six grounds of argument, Falana argued that the complainant had not filed any criminal charge or motion before the court.
The senior lawyer argued that the court lacked the territorial jurisdiction to entertain the ex-parte application as the alleged offences of conspiracy, attempted murder, murder and arson took place in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
“He submitted that the court lacked the vires to grant an application to arrest and declare his clients wanted in respect of the alleged offences.
“The complainant/respondent (IG) did not adduce evidence of terrorism in the affidavit in support of the application.
“The complainant/respondent did not cite any section of the Terrorism Prevention Act, 2013 (as amended) alleged to have been contravened by the applicants,” he argued.
Aladedoye in a motion on notice dated and filed February 9, on behalf of the five defendants, sought two orders, including
“an order staying execution or further execution of the order(s) of this honourable court made on the 31st of January, 2024, pending the hearing and determination of the appeal filed by the applicants.
“An order of injunction restraining the complainant from carrying out or further carrying out the orders of this honourable court made on the 31st January 2024, pending the hearing and determination of the appeal filed by the applicant in this case.”
Giving a three-ground argument, Aladedoye said that a notice of appeal had already been filed against Justice Nwite’s orders.
According to the senior lawyer, the notice of appeal contains grounds that challenge the jurisdiction of the honourable court.
The Inspector-General had, in a charge marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/25/2024, arraigned the defendants on a seven-count criminal charge bordering on terrorism and murder.
The authorities of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (IAUOE), Rumuolumeni, in Rivers State, have stated that 13 students will be graduating with first class while 182 graduands will bag Ph.D during the 42nd convocation ceremony of the university billed to hold today and tomorrow.
The Acting Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Okechuku Onuchuku, disclosed this during pre-convocation press briefing held in his office, yesterday, to unveil the programme for the convocation ceremony.
Onuchuku said that the 13 students were among the 4,653 graduands expected to graduate for the 2022/2023 academic session with first degree, while 897 students will be graduating with postgraduate degrees.
The Acting Vice Chancellor while giving the breakdown stated that 13 students made first class, 890 students bagged second class upper while 2,739 students had second class lower for first degree.
He further stated that 182 graduands bagged PhD, 667 got master’s degree and 48 got postgraduate diploma, adding that the convocation ceremony will hold today and tomorrow for first degree graduands and postgraduate graduands respectively.
He said that a total of 47 programmes out of the 54 programmes being undertaken at the first degree levels had been given full accreditation by the National University Commission (NUC) as well as all the programmes at the postgraduate school.
“We have ensured that our programmes both at the first degree and post graduates are in line with the NUC stipulated guidelines and speculations. We have also ensured that we are in line with both our academic and administrative policies,” he said.
Prof. Okechukwu urged the graduating students of the institution to always remember to use thier positions to help their alma mater as well as project the institution in a good image in the larger society.
“Try to ensure you finish any project you want to do, evaluate it first and avoid unfinished or abandoned projects. We will be graduating first degree graduands on Friday while Saturday will be for postgraduates, “he added.
Prof. Onuchukwu also said his administration had achieved a lot since he assumed office as Acting Vice Chancellor, stressing that his administration had improved on the welfare of the staff and the students.
“There are a lot of projects completed in the school; we have also given scholarship to some students and also encouraged departments to do same. We also impacted positively on our host communities”, he said.
Akujobi Amadi
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