The apex court had upheld the nominations of Senate President, Ahmad Lawan and immediate past Minister for Niger Delta, Senator Godswill Akpabio, despite the fact that both APC chieftains participated actively in the presidential primary of the party.
But legal practitioners, who spoke to The Guardian, including Monday Ubani and Dr. Sam Amadi, noted that the court only determines cases based on facts before it, stressing that in most circumstances, the apex court considers issues formulated from judgments of the court below.
On the issue of which takes precedence between technicality and substance of a case, Amadi, who is also the Director of Abuja School of Social and Political Thought (ASSPT), said: “It depends on what the issue is. Technicality is important in law to lead us to substantive justice.
“Technicality should not take us away from clear justice. The venerable Lord Denning once said that the picture of justice prostrate and technicality triumphant is a terrible one. Technicality should be the maiden and not the master of justice.”
Amadi asserted that in electoral matters, “justice is ensuring that the people’s votes count, that the person who takes over political power should be only the person who is declared elected.
“If the court by over-reliance on technicality defeats the intention of the electorate and imposes someone else because of technicality, then the law has failed to deliver justice,” he noted.
However, Ubani, a human rights activist and Chairman, Nigeria Bar Association Section on Public Interest and Development law (NBA-SPIDEL), said Nigerians need to understand the facts of those cases (Akpabio and Lawan) before making what is called blanket condemnation and comparison.
He stated: “In Akpabio’s case, the retired DIG Ekpodum was the one that went to Federal High Court Abuja and he asked the court to compel INEC to put his name as the senatorial candidate of APC in Akwa Ibom Northwest Senatorial district.
“Now, when he did that, he did not join Akpabio as a party, contrary to the rules of procedure in a pre-election matter. He also brought the case, when the thing he complained of had happened more than 14 days, because pre-election matters must commence within 14 days. He filed out of time. Then, third, in his own statement, he agreed that it was the state Executive Committee of the party that organised his own primary contrary to all the known procedures and processes that it is only the National Working Committee that organises primary elections for political parties.
“And, finally, the one that was very fatal to his case was that he said his own primary election took place on May 27 instead of 28, that was supposed to be the day senatorial election of APC took place throughout the country.”
Ubani stated that contrary to insinuations in the public domain, no electoral law was breached in the decision of the Supreme Court, noting, “there was no breach of even procedural law, there was no even breach of any substantive law.”
ALSO, the President, Body of Benchers in Nigeria, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), has pleaded with Nigerians not to pull down the judiciary with criticism. The senior lawyers’ advise is coming on the heels of reaction to the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola’s warning that the Supreme Court’s silence on attacks on its judicial officers should not be mistaken for weakness or cowardice.
Olanipekun, who was just appointed a visiting Professor of Legal practice by the Federal University Oye-Ekiti, stated this at the weekend, while fielding questions from newsmen.
The senior lawyer said it is sacrilegious for any lawyer to be commenting fancifully on any matter that is pending in court, noting, “it is always better and by the ethics of our profession, when a matter is subjudice not to comment on it”
He advised lawyers to subject any matter or judgment of the courts to criticism in law journals, law reports or write ups, and not by way of abuse, saying that, abuse is no arguments and it doesn’t improve arguments.
Olanipekun also urged the Federal Government to ameliorate the suffering of Nigerians occasioned by the redesigned naira notes, most especially the people in the informal sector of the economy.
According to Olanipekun, “in Nigeria, those who make up the informal economy are people who are not into white collar jobs, government don’t pay them monthly, they sell and hawk their wares.
“The naira policy, the way it was initiated, I don’t want to doubt the good faith of government, but one thing is that government exist to make life easier, pleasurable, meaningful, habitable for the citizenry, that is the prime essence of government.”
MEANWHILE, the Supreme Court has said it is not deterred by attacks on its judges over the recent judgments they delivered. In a statement at the weekend, the Director of Press and Information at the Supreme Court, Festus Akande, warned that those who had been “venting convoluted anger” were ignorant of the law.
He said insinuations that its justices were bought over ‘by some unknown and unseen persons’ was nothing short of ‘a bizarre expression of ignorance.’
“Courts don’t advertise or scout for cases for adjudication; but at the same time, we are duty-bound to adjudicate on all matters that come before us with a view to giving justice to whoever justice is due, irrespective of status,” the statement read.
“No court in any clime is a Father Christmas; so, no one can get what he or she didn’t ask for. Similarly, all matters are thoroughly analysed and considered based on their merits and not the faces that appear in Court or sentiments that attempt to becloud the sense of reasoning.
“So, for anyone in his or her right frame of mind to insinuate that the Justices have been bought over by some unknown and unseen persons is, to say the least, a bizarre expression of ignorance, which definitely has no place in law or even in the realm of pedestrian reasoning.
“We are not surprised with the surge of these well-orchestrated verbal assaults on Judicial Officers across the country at this period of elections. It is a thing we are used to and are ever ready to absorb whatever comes our way, but there should be some level of decorum and dignity in what we say and do. Politics should not be played without recourse to good conscience and acceptable moral conduct, as everything is evolving globally.
“Those who have cultivated the unfashionable penchant of always attacking the Judiciary over every judgment or ruling given should better have a rethink and start channelling such robust energy into some ventures that are more developmental than destructive.”
Source; Guardian News
