|
Senator Abana loses at Appeal Court
By Chukwudi
Achife
Bureau Chief, Enugu
The Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu on
Tuesday dismissed an application by Senator Ikechukwu Abana seeking to set
aside the court’s judgment last May declaring Chief Ben Obi winner of the
election for the Anambra Central Senatorial District.
Abana had asked the court to set aside
the judgment delivered by a panel headed by Justice Ayo Salami on the grounds
that it had no powers to rehear the case after a previous panel led by Justice
Okwuchukwu Opene had heard and reserved judgment.
He also said the Salami panel did not
give him fair hearing and had unjustifiably refused all his entreaties and
applications to enable him state his case.
The court, in a unanimous ruling read by
Justice Ola Adeleke, held that the Salami panel acted within the rules of the
court to rehear and decide the matter, adding that the Opene panel had not
written any judgment before it was changed.
It added that in line with the principle
that a court has no powers to review or set aside its own decision or that of a
court of concurrent jurisdiction, the current panel of the court headed by
Justice James Ogebe had no powers to set aside the judgment of the previous panel.
The court also dismissed Abana’s
claims that he was not given fair hearing by the Salami panel holding that he
was given ample opportunity to state his case, which he failed to do.
It therefore dismissed the application
for lack of merit and awarded N10, 000 cost against the applicant (Abana).
Reacting to the ruling, Abana said he
would file a stay of its execution due to other applications and appeals on the
matter pending before the Federal High Court, Abuja.
He said he would also initiate criminal
proceedings against Obi for allegedly forging and parading the result of the
election and had petitioned the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) seeking
to prevent it from issuing certificate of election to Obi since the commission
was a party in all the pending cases.
Controversy has continued to dog the case
since the Opene panel that first handled it was changed amidst allegations of
bias levelled against it by Obi. The Salami panel that replaced it was
similarly accused of bias by Abana’s counsel, Dr Wale Babalakin (SAN) and
Nobis Elendu both of whom successively withdrew their services in protest
against the panel’s handling of the case
The Ogebe panel is the third to handle the case.
|
