Mike Ozekhome
Prof Mike Ozekhome, a foremost constitutional lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has said that great injustice has been done to all the PDP National and State Assembly members from Plateau State, who were wrongfully sacked by the Court of Appeal, but added that the Supreme Court could still remedy the situation.
Ozekhome made this known while appearing on an Arise Television live interview program monitored by Periscope International, stressing that the judgments of the Court of Appeal were tantamount to a gross miscarriage of justice.
He said that although his initial belief was that too many cases should not get to the Supreme Court, the appeal court’s sack of Plateau lawmakers could still be reviewed by the apex court because of the irreparable damage done to them and the Plateau electorate for the sake of true justice.
Ozekhome said: “Injustice has been done to them. What is the remedy now?
“That is why I am going to review my stance with all respect, humility as a constitutional lawyer.
“Yes, these cases should go to the supreme court as a final court of the land.
“The Supreme Court “spared no words in criticising some of the rulings of the appeal court on governorship election disputes.
“The apex court used judicial “koboko”(a flexible whip made with cow skin or horsetail) to “flog” the appeal court while giving verdicts on the matters.”
The fiery lawyer and Professor of Constitutional Law, noted that the Court of Appeal justices disrespected the Supreme Court in the Plateau cases by going against its precedent decisions by assuming jurisdiction in preelection matters and using same as the ground for sacking the lawmakers and the state governor.
“The appeal court ruled that the “PDP structure in Plateau collapsed since 2020”, and as such, the party cannot sponsor any candidate to contest an election.
“I was one of those who felt like the supreme court should not be bothered with too many of these; the house of assembly, house of representative, and senate (cases) could end at the appeal level, but from what we have seen particularly in the Plateau scenario, there was a great miscarriage of justice,” he said.
“The Supreme Court spared no words, they used legal and judicial koboko (cane) to flog the court of appeal for what they termed miscarriage of justice, perverse judgments.
“In many of the cases, particularly the Plateau state, two senators’ positions were reversed, three house of representative were reversed, and 16 house of assembly were reversed. If all these cases had gone to the supreme court, all of them would have their seats retained.
“On what grounds were they reversed? The court of appeal surprisingly was saying the PDP had no structure in Plateau state.
“When did PDP structure, membership of a political party, nomination, congresses, and primaries become part and parcel of matters that the court can have jurisdiction?
“Now, the Supreme Court says not even the election tribunal has jurisdiction, let alone the court of appeal. And they voided the decision of the governorship.
“The Supreme Court would also have voided the decision on the two senatorial candidates, three house of representatives, and the 16 house of assembly.”
It would be recalled that in November 2023, a court of appeal sitting in Abuja sacked all elected members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the National and Plateau State House of Assembly.
However, while delivering judgment on eight governorship election cases last Friday, the Supreme Court upturned the decisions of the Court of Appeal in Plateau, Kano and Zamfara governorship cases.
