[size=14pt]Massive shake-up in Court of Appeal[/size]
From Tobi Soniyi in Abuja, 09.23.2010
Friday, September 24, 2010

Ahead of the 2011 general election, the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Isa Ayo Salami, has effected a major reshuffle of justices of the court.


Under the amended Electoral Act, the Court of Appeal will serve as a tribunal of first instance in disputes arising from governorship and National Assembly elections.

It used to be the high court in the previous elections.

Salami has also created two additional courts in Akure, Ondo State, and Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State. The two new courts bring to 15 the number of divisions under the court.

Prior to the creation of the two divisions, appeals emanating from Ondo State were heard and determined at the Benin division while appeals from Ekiti State were taken to the Ilorin division in Kwara State.

Justice Mary Odili, wife of the former governor of Rivers State, Dr. Peter Odili, who used to sit at the Abuja division of the court, has been moved to Kaduna. Her brother justices, Abdu Aboki and Lokulo Sodipe, both of whom used to be at the Abuja division were transferred to Enugu. Justice Amina Augie was moved from Jos division to Enugu.

Justice S.S. Alagoa was moved from Benin to Ibadan. Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun who narrowly lost promotion to the Supreme Court to Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour, was transfered to Ibadan from Port Harcourt.

Justice Amiru Sanusi, who used to be the presiding justice at the Enugu division, is now the presiding justice at the Benin division, while Justice Dongbam Mensem was redeployed from Lagos to Jos.

Many other justices are affected by the transfer.

The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has already expressed reservation over the capacity of the court of appeal to attend to the numerous petitions that are likely to follow the 2011 elections.

It is being suggested that there ought to be at least one tribunal for each state. With only 15 divisions, two or more states will have to file their petitions arising from governorship and National Assembly elections before a division of the court of appeal.

Speaking in Abuja at the inauguration of some committees, the NBA Constitution Review, Electoral Justice Reform and Data Base and Documentation Committees, President of the association, Chief Joseph Daudu (SAN), warned that the new Electoral Act would make determination of election petitions a very difficult task.

He said that the Electoral Act 2010 would result in many post election crises.

He said: �Section 133(1) of the Electoral Act 2010 provides that no election and return election under this Act shall be questioned in any manner other than by a petition complaining of an undue election or undue return presented to the competent tribunal or court in accordance with the Constitution or of the Act, and in which the person elected or returned is joined as a party.

"Ordinarily the above section would not have posed a problem but for Section 133(2) of the Act which defines tribunal or court to mean in the case of the presidential or governorship election, the Court of Appeal and in the case of any other elections under the Act the election tribunal as established under the Constitution or Act."

According to him, the implication of the foregoing is that it is the Court of Appeal that now has the original jurisdiction in the determination of governorship election disputes.

"If this is correct, it means that the unaccented amended constitution contains amendments to Section 246(1)(b)(i)(ii) and (iii) Section 285 (2) and the 6th Schedule to the 1999 Constitution to the effect that original jurisdiction in governorship matters shall hence forth be determined by the Court of Appeal," he added.

In his view, the new Electoral Act would overwhelm the Court of Appeal.

He described the inherent risk and danger posed by the new Electoral Act thus: "First by Section 1 of the Court of Appeal Act as amended the total number of Justices to the Court of Appeal is 70 and if that number 70 is divided by five, which is the standard panel for election cases, then you have only 14 panels. Even if the constitution of the panels is reduced to three which is most undesirable one can only get 23.3 panels.

"With 36 states of the federation and usually in the heat of elections petitions some states get more than two active and indeed overworked panels. The position as it appears is that there is not even one panel to go round the states.

"Ancillary to this is the fact that by section 13(2) of the Act every petition is required to be determined by the Tribunal within 180 days from the date of filling of the said petition whilst appellate tribunal has 90 days to determine the appeals to conclusion.

�These provisions ought to alert the alarm bells of any practitioner conversant with the determination of election petitions.

"If the objective of setting time limits is to achieve harmony in governance so that petitions do not continue even after elected officials have been sworn in then even the laudable objective has been defeated because the combined statutory period for the resolution of a petition is now 270 days about nine months which takes it well beyond the May 29th 2011 from the January 8th 2011 when the first election is to take place."

In an exclusive interview with THISDAY, Mr. Sebastian Hon (SAN) warned that the country might be heading for a constitutional crisis if the court of appeal, an already overburdened court, is to hear elections petitions arising from governorship and National Assembly elections.

http://odili.net/news/source/2010/sep/24/208.html

The appeal btw Jonathan and his political opponents will be filed in Abuja and Justice Odili is the spouse of IBB's 2nd man.