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ANPP loses suit to void Wabara's election
From Emmanuel Onwubiko, Abuja
THE All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) yesterday lost its bid to nullify the declared victory of the Senate President, Chief Adolphus Wabara, in the April 12, 2003 National Assembly election.
The result saw Wabara of the People Democratic Party (PDP) representing the Abia South Senatorial seat. He consequently became the President of the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly.
The Court of Appeal's three Justices panel, headed by Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, endorsed by Justices Zainab Adamu Bulkachuwa and Mary `Peter Odili, dismissed the appeal for lack of Jurisdiction to entertain an election matter.
Justice Muhammad, the Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, in dismissing the Appeal, said: "The position in this appeal is that the trial court found that it had no Jurisdiction at all on the matter. I entirely agree with the learned trial Judge that his court lacked Jurisdiction to entertain any issue, which is consigned by the constitution to another court or Tribunal.
He continued: "The consideration of exhibits SEK 4, 5 or any other, which stemmed from an election an only be competently treated by the Election/Petition Tribunal created by section 285 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999."
He said: "I do not think that a Federal High Court is competent to entertain such election matters brought to it under whatever guise. An order of certiorari, which is of common law origin, directs for the removal of a certified record of a particular case tried in an interior court or other persons or bodies exercising judicial or quasi-judicial functions for the purposes of being quashed. See Ortese versus Military Governor of Benue State (1991) 4 NWLR (Pt 183), 102, Ayinde Versus Iwo Guade 3 Customary Court (1965) NMLR, 408."
He held further: "Care must be taken however, to see that the court issuing it must have the requisite competence and Jurisdiction over the subject matter and or parties. But where the court has found itself incompetent to so issue as in the present case, the best it can do is to "hands off" by declining Jurisdiction and strike out the matter. In my view, the learned trial Judge did what he had been enjoined by the law to do by striking out the matter. I hardly can fault his decision.
"Issue (d) appears to me to be speculative. Courts of law are courts of facts and law. They decide issues on facts established before them and on laws. It is not part of the assignment of any court to speculate. It must avoid it."
The president, in dismissing the appeal against the opposition party represented in court by Chief Mike Ahamba (SAN), continued: "The application for Judicial review was truncated by the preliminary objection sustained by the learned trial Judge. He did not consider its merit. It is difficult for an Appeal Court to say the position of a trial court when the latter did not make a pronouncement on the matter before it. The Court of Appeal, as the name suggests, sits mainly on appeal over what a trial court had already decided upon. It is not a matter of speculation. I say no more on that. Having resolved all the issues against the Appellant, the appeal fails, and is hereby dismissed by me.
The ANPP had gone to the Federal High Court, Abuja to seek;
- an order of certiorari removing the declaration of result of Election to the senate (Form EC 8E) dated 14/4/03 issued by the firsts to 3rd.
- respondents (the Returning Officer, Abia South Senatorial District Mr. Festus Ukagwu, INEC and Senate President, Adolphus Wabara, in respect of the Abia South Senatorial District to the court, for the purpose of being quashed.
The party also sought other four declaratory orders of the Federal High Court to annul Wabara's emergence.
The Federal High Court struck out the matter for lack of Jurisdiction. But the ANPP moved to the Appellate court with four constitutional questions among which is whether Exhibit Sek 5, the result issued on 14/4/04, was a return in an election under the Electoral Act.
Yesterday's judgment by the Court of Appeal has brought to an end, the high wire politics and legal drama that has enveloped the emergence, in controversial circumstances, of the Senate President.
After the April 12, 2003, polls in Abia South Senatorial Zone, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced Chief Dan Chinyere Imo of the ANPP as winner. Two days after, the electoral body at the instance of two pending Federal High Court injunctions, issued by the now retired Justice Samuel Wilson Egbo-Egbo, recognised Wabara as winner.
Wabara later became Senate President. Dan Imo, who had filed a suit at the Federal High Court challenging the recognition of Wabara, later withdrew without informing his counsel, Chief Tochukwu Onwugbufor(SAN). But the ANPP briefed a fresh legal team comprising about 50 lawyers headed by Ahamba to the Court of Appeal to void Wabara's election. The court now dismissed the appeal.
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