₦airaland Forum

DEM WEAR DIFFERENT CLOTHS FOR OFFICE COME WEAR DIFFERENT ONES TAKE PHOTO OUTSIDE OFFICE?

A faulty card reader cannot be a ground for invalidating an election, the court of Appeal in Lagos said yesterday.[size=8pt][/size]

The court held that the Electoral Act (2010) as amended does not recognise the malfunctioning of a card reader as one of the factors that can lead to the nullification of an election.

This, the appellate court held, is because the Electoral Act predates the introduction of the card reader.

The Court of Appeal stated this in a verdict on a cross-appeal filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) challenging parts of the Governorship Election Tribunal’s verdict in the case of Jimi Agbaje versus Governor Akinwunmi Ambode and others.

APC filed the cross-appeal on two grounds. In the first ground, it said the tribunal erred in law when, having held that Paragraph 14 of Agbaje’s petition challenged Ambode’s nomination, went ahead to hold that it was a valid ground.

The party said any complaint about a pre-election issue falls within the jurisdiction of the Federal or Lagos State High Court, therefore, the tribunal ought to have declined jurisdiction.

The party also asked that Agbaje’s petition be struck out because its paragraph 13b which complained about faulty card readers did not qualify as a ground to challenge the April 11 election.

The Court of Appeal, in a judgment by Justice Obande Festus Ogbuinya, resolved the first issue in Agbaje and PDP’s favour, and the second issue in APC’s favour.

A copy of the judgment, delivered on August 26, was obtained by our correspondent yesterday. Other justices on the panel were A. J. Abdulkadir, Mohammed Danjuma, Emmenuel Agim and Saidu Hussaini.

Agbaje, the PDP, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Ambode and the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) were the cross-respondents.

The appellate court held that both the High Courts and the tribunal have concurrent jurisdiction over the issue of a candidate’s qualification/disqualification.

Justice Ogbuinyi held: “The cross-appellant (APC) implored this court to declare the paragraph 14 a pre-election matter cognisable only in the regular courts because it alluded to 21 days notice decreed in Section 85 (1) of the Electoral Act. The cross-appellant made heavy weather of this point.

“The paragraph 14 of the petition qualifies as a valid ground for querying the qualification of the fourth cross-respondent (Ambode) to contest the election.

“The trial tribunal is the forum competens for the first and second cross-respondents (Agbaje and PDP) to ventilate their grouse on his (Ambode’s) qualification/disqualification. Put simply, the trial tribunal was clothed with jurisdiction over paragraph 14 of the petition.

“In the end, I have no option than to resolve issue one against the cross-appellant and in favour of the first and second cross-respondents.”

Resolving the second issue in APC’s favour, the appellate court held: “The paragraph (13b) displays a vitriolic attack on the irregularities germinating from the improper or non-use of the smart card readers in the polling units.

“As it is, it has no life of its own as a ground. It endeavours to introduce the defects in the use of smart card readers. The evolution of the concept of smart card reader is a familiar one. It came to being during the last general election. On this score, it is a nascent procedure injected into our infant and fledgling electoral system to ensure credible and transparent election.

“The extant Electoral Act (2010) which predates the concept (of card reader) is not its parent or progenitor. Since it is not the progeny of the Electoral Act, fronting it as a ground to challenge any election does not have its (the Electoral Act’s) blessing, nay Section 138 (1) of it.

“Put simply, a petitioner cannot project the non-presence or improper use of smart card reader as a ground for questioning an election. It does not qualify as one.

“On the whole, having resolved the two issues for and against the cross-appellant, the fate of the cross-appeal is obvious. It is partially-meritorious and succeeds in part. Consequently, I allow the cross-appeal in part.

“Accordingly, I affirm the portion of the trial tribunal’s decision declaring paragraph 14 of the petition as competent and triable by it. I set aside its part of the decision which approved paragraph 13 (b) as a competent ground for presenting a petition.”

The Court of Appeal had upheld the Governorship Election Tribunal’s decision which struck out Agbaje’s petition and upheld Ambode’s victory.

That time limit idea goes against all known laws of humanity. It must either be infinte within the time limit or there is no time limit at all.

If there was no election what was the reason. Was there breakdown of law and order? Were there no INEC officers in the entire local govt area? Were there no materials? The army officer should tell the court and Nigerias what happened there that made elections impossible.

Is Trans Amadi a shanty town?

phlemzy:
Their engineers should be queried. The reason there are high pressure sensing devices is this.

That is the issue bro. A boiler is a huge bomb. Safety devices are supposed to be up and functioning but they dont due to negligence.
It is even good that this has been published. Many industrial accidents never get published.

You are safe as fas you don't tell anybody within your company about it. You have to go to your boss and apologise and pledge never to tell anybody about it.

He calls Nigeria a zoo. That is even good calling. Many people who are dining with Buhari today and many of those with him in the US now have called Nigeria a jungle. Zoo is better than jungle. In the zoo animals are controlled but in the jungle animals are loose to wreck havoc any how. Let him change and call Nigeria what it is . Nigeria is a jungle.

This is no campaign time. We know that Jonathans govt was bad and voted them out. Now you are in power so show working. Show working.

mrvitalis:
Not a bad list, as far as u will negotiate in the interests of Nigerians. ... .. .. .. At least I know ameachi won't fear Obama

there is nothing in the heads of those people to negotiate in the interest of Nigeria. They will negotiate Nigeria back to colonialism or slavery.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE FIRST AGREEMENT WITH BOKO HARAM. DID THEY RESPECT IT?

What is the hate message. It said, "go after the ethnic bigots". There is no hate message there. My be the NBC is bigot.

Na waaa. 50 km? Why then have we not been winning marathon races?

Is today or today of yesterday?

DOES THIS MEAN THAT THE SERVICE CHIEFS WILL MOVE TO MAIDUGIRI?

What is Oshiamolo talking about. Did Edo state not receiveits own share? Did Oshiamole not know that fall in oil prices will mean fall in revenue. The oil marketers are are talking about foriegn exchange differentials. That is how much they paid to get a dollar in the past Vs how much they pay nowadays. Oshiamole knows that Naira was devalued 2 times. Does he not know?

omenka:
This has been the question on my mind for days now.

If the average price is $108 and we have a benchmark of $79, it means we have $29 going into the excess crude account for every single barrel of crude oil sold. When you multiply this figure by the daily output/export which is put at about 3m barrels, and then by an average of 300 days, the monster in Jonathan's thieving government (corruption) is revealed in all its glory!!!!

Lord have mercy.

You multiply by daily output and get whatever. You think the oil companies work for free. You dont know how much the oil companies get. You dont know how much the fianancial houses that handle the transactions get? When you put 1 million into your account, do you get exacly 1 million out? What about other deductables from the oil revenue that go directly. You guys lost your brains to hatred.

Fake, Fake, Fake. A release from Downing street could not name their spokesman. It just said,"a downing street spokesman" Shame on fakers.

sO HE CAN SAY I AM SORRY FOR MY MISTAKES OF THE PAST

Which bank

Pat Utomi is a failed politician. Is Pat Utomi an Igboman? Has he ever identified with the Igbo cause.

Hate has turned some of you guys stupid. How many boxes contain 7 billion Naira and or how many ghana must gos contain 7 billion Naira?

That article was not written by an Oyibo person. In fact it was written by a Nigerian.

There should be no dormant account at all.

This is old news.

If the osu are people dedicated to the gods but yet very ill treated, it means the Igbo do not regard their gods.

This had the wordings of a prophecy until the last two sentences.

YOU GUYS DONT READ. THE HEAD LINE IS DIFFERENT FROM THE CONTENT. KESHI SAID, " WE COULD HAVE MADE AN IMPACT IF WE HAD QUALIFIED". GO AND READ IT. THIS WHY THE PRESS MAKES MESS OF THE PUBLIC.

If Buhari wins and goes ahead with his plans for the press, Sahara reporters will be banned and its executives thrown into jail.

I think Dokubos wife speaks better English than what I saw there.

The army was destroyed by Gowon in 1966 when he took over power on account of a coup. Ojukwu sad,if the supreme commander is dead, let the next in rank take over" The next in rank was Bgr Ogundipe. Gowon refused and took over. From that time a capt had the right to plan a coup, kill the sitting cin c and take over. It happened with Buhari and IBB. These are the people that destroyed the military.

bigmo1:
GEJ's Uniport phd shows how poor the quality of Education obtainable in uniport is. Prof Akin Oyebode of Unilag said Jonathan is a disgrace to phd holders. Only in uniport can imbeciles like GEJ get a Phd.

AND UNILAG DE AWARD 200 and something 1st classes.