Court Of Appeal Decides On Umeh's Stay Of Execution

                                    

What happened today in the Abuja Appeal court? Was it true that judgment was reserved and Chief Victor Umeh’s stay of Execution struck out?  But before the decision this below was the situation. 

 

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja today begin hearing into the appeal filed by erstwhile National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Victor Umeh, challenging the Federal High Court judgment that threw him and former National Secretary of the party, Sani Shinkafi, out of office.

Justice Abubakar Abdul-Kafarati of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja had on January 15 ruled in a suit filed by current Chairman, Maxi Okwu, that not only had Umeh and Shinkafi’s tenure expired as at December 2010, Umeh abandoned also his suit challenging his expulsion from the party while Shinkafi had long exceeded the maximum period allowed by APGA constitution for elected party officers.

The judge also held that attempt by Umeh to smuggle himself back to office through an affirmative convention contravenes the APGA constitution.

He stressed that in so far as the Awka high court and the Court of Appeal sanctioned the national convention of April 8, 2013 that brought Okwu and other members of the National Working Committee to power, Umeh has ceased to be national chairman of APGA.

While rejecting the ruling of the Federal High Court, Umeh derided Justice Abdu-Kafarati, accusing him of engaging in judicial rascality and headed to the Appeal Court.

He claimed that the Federal High Court in Abuja lacked jurisdiction to entertain the matter.

It would be recalled that in a recent letter to Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke, had declared that following a closer look at the cases relating to the APGA crisis, Okwu, and not Umeh, should be accorded recognition as the authentic leader of APGA.

However, in an interaction with newsmen, Umeh had said: “I went to the Court of Appeal because I was the one that was sued; my colleagues were not sued. But in that matter, he sacked the entire leadership of APGA.”

He had added that at the Court of Appeal in Enugu he raised the issue of jurisdiction on the matter as well as the issue of non-joinder of APGA as a party in the suit. 

Umeh had said he challenged all the decisions Justice Kafarati made in the January 15, 2013 judgment.

Umeh’s attempts to stay execution of the Abuja High Court ruling hit the rocks severally both at the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal where he also filed for accelerated hearing, even after the case had been listed for hearing today.

In a related development, Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Mariam Aloma Mukhtar, has advocated reversal of the provisions of the Electoral Act that made the governorship election petitions to end at the Supreme Court back to the Court of Appeal.

She said the present situation where the case ends at the Apex Court has been causing distractions.

Justice Mukhtar said this in Abuja on Monday when the National Conference Committee on the Judiciary paid her a courtesy visit to seek her views on some areas that need to be amended in the Constitution for speedy adjudication of cases in the courts.

The 25-member committee was led by Awwalu Yadudu as Gabriel Oguntade (former Justice of the Supreme Court) was absent.

Yadudu told the CJN that the committee members resolved last week to seek her views on some provisions they felt ought to be amended in the 1999 Constitution.

But Justice Mukhtar said the immediate past CJN, Justice Musdapher, had set up stakeholders committee when the National Assembly called for a memorandum for the amendment of the 1999 Constitution.

“Let me seize this opportunity to present to you a copy of that Stakeholders Committee Report which is already before the National Assembly as our own input to the present constitutional debate. 

“That committee brainstormed on some constitutional provisions and came up with some sections we proposed before the National Assembly for amendment.

“Personally, I am particular about Section 233 of the 1999 Constitution that deals with appellate jurisdictions of cases before the courts for adjudication.

“There are several cases that ought not to come to the Supreme Court and should have terminated at the Court of Appeal,” she said.

Justice Mukhtar added: “I feel all gubernatorial election petitions tribunal matters should terminate at the Court of Appeal because as a result of those political appeals other regular ordinary cases suffer at the Supreme Court.

“Issues of chieftaincy and interlocutory appeals ought to terminate at the Appeal Court because they constitute distraction here in the Supreme Court.

“An ordinary farmer who sues over his farmland valued at N50,000 deserves to be heard on time.”

A member of the committee, Mike Ozokhome, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), had asked the CJN to comment on the voluntary and compulsory retirement ages of 65 and 70 years respectively for judicial officers in the Constitution, to which she said were in order in view of the peculiar characteristics of Nigerians.

“If you shift the voluntary retirement age to 70 years and put compulsory retirement age at 75 years, so many Nigerians will prefer to sit tight, saying they can manage even if their health begins to fail them at the age of 70 years. 

“Many of us are highly dishonest and can never admit the fact that they are no longer capable, otherwise there are many judges that are still vibrant at the age of 70 years,’ Justice Mukhtar said.

Picture courtesy of Hon Eneh Victor Chimezie and filtering news