Appeal Court Judgement Was An Intellectual Discuss On Our Electoral Jurisprudence
By Amb. Tony Okonigene
In all my journeys through life, I have never seen where people display and celebrate their ignorance and illiteracy like the Edo APC do. The sheer audacity with which they push out senseless interpretations of courts judgements beats any sane mind.
The latest is the celebrations once again of the disqualification of the PDP candidate, Barr. Asue Ighodalo by the court of Appeal today in Abuja. A judgement on an appeal brought against the ruling of the Federal High Court on the preliminary objection brought by Barr. Asue Ighodalo in the suit before Justice Omotosho is what the APC has interpreted to mean a disqualification of the PDP candidate. How more low can these guys go intellectually.
For the purposes of throwing light and exposing the decay in the thinking faculties of these characters, let me try and explain to the lay man today’s judgement of the Appeal Court .
On the 12TH of May 2024, the former deputy governor of Edo State, Comrade Philip Shuaibu and 3 others, approached the Federal High Court, Abuja asking it to compel INEC not to recognize Barr. Asue Ighodalo as the PDP candidate on the allegation that he forged his voter’s card. The suit was brought by originating summons ( which means you cannot call witnesses) as prescribed by the Electoral Act 2022. The plaintiffs later brought an amendment asking the court to allow them to call witnesses to prove their case.
Barr. Asue, through his lawyers brought a preliminary objection to this on the grounds that it was an abuse of court process and that the case was already out of time. He asked the court to dismiss the case.
The judge, Justice Omotosho ruled against Barr. Asue Ighodalo and went ahead to hear the case allowing Shuaibu and co to call their witnesses to prove the case of forgery that they brought against Asue.
Barr. Asue , on June 6, 2024, appealed against this ruling by the High Court. As the Appeal was filed, Justice Omotosho still went ahead to hear the case and delivered judgment in favour of Barr. Asue Ighodalo because, Philip Shuaibu and co could not prove their case.
It is the ruling of Justice Omotosho on the preliminary objection appealed against by Barr. Asue Ighodalo on June 6, 2024, that the Appeal Court delivered judgment on today. The Appeal Court held that the High Court was in order to have ruled against the preliminary objection and gone ahead with the case.
What this means is that the Appeal Court has sanctioned and endorsed the decisions taken by the High Court. Recall that the High Court gave judgment in favour of Asue Ighodalo.
Since the High Court judgement was in favour of Asue Ighodalo, he could not have appealed against the judgment but against the ruling on the preliminary objection.
I advise the APC followers to always ask for the consequential order/s of any judgement. There is no enforceable judgement without consequential order/s.
In today’s Appeal Court judgement, was there any consequential order? Of course no. The judge said no order. It was a mere intellectual discuss on our electoral jurisprudence.
Know this and have peace.
August 5, 2024
