ALL hurdles have now been scaled by the governor of Kogi State, Captain Idris Wada (retd), for his continued stay in Lord Lugard House as the Supreme Court, on Monday, dismissed the appeal brought by both Prince Abubakar Audu and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) challenging the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which had on July 12 upheld his victory in the December 2011 governorship election.
The full panel of the apex court, presided over by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloma Muhktar had unanimously hinged its judgment on the fact that the applicants were out of time in bringing their appeal and hence it lacked jurisdiction to entertain such.
Counsel for Audu, Charles Edomsomwan SAN, had earlier prayed the court to allow the appeal, submitting that the appeal was as of right and that the court should, in the display of justice, exercise its discretion in hearing the appeal.He further submitted that filing the appeal outside the stipulated time was an error on his part, adding that he thought that 21 days were provided for instead of 14 days. He, therefore, prayed the court to exercise its discretion in such a way that would not affect hearing the merit of the appeal.
Counsel for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Lateef Fagbemi SAN, had brought a counter affidavit opposing the application for extension of time, submitting that the court did not have jurisdiction to hear it in the first place as provided for by Section 285(7) of the 1999 Constitution as amended.
Also, counsel for Wada and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Chris Uche SAN and Yusuf Ali SAN, respectively, also prayed the court to dismiss the appeal for being incompetent.
Ali had argued that the ignorance of the counsel was not a ground for indulgence, adding that the counsel had not shown due diligence on carrying out his case.
He added that the applicant was only inviting the apex court to accept that it made a mistake in putting together Practice Direction.
The apex court, in its short ruling delivered by Justice Mahammed Mahmud, held that the court had to consider the provision of the Practice Directions 2011 to determine the fate of the applicants, adding that such power to extend time for appeal of an election matter was given to the court and hence, the court lacked jurisdiction to do so.
He further held that Section 285(7) of the 1999 Constitution as amended and paragraph 1 of the Practice Directions are statutes of limitation and it must be observed as such.
According to him, "the court has no jurisdiction to extend the time for filing of an appeal. Granting the application will be contrary to the Practice Direction. Even if the application brought by the applicant is competent, the applicant has not known a cogent reason for filing his application out of time. The applicant does not satisfy the criteria to grant such application, even it is competent.
"The affidavit of the applicant did not show any good reason why the appeal must be heard, the requirements of the law are not satisfied, so the applicant has failed. The application is hereby refused. Consequently, there is no appeal before this court. The application has no merit."
After the ruling, the court asked the counsel for the ACN, Dr Muiz Banire, on the next step he wanted to take on his appeal, since it was hinged on the first one that had been dismissed.
Dr Bamire, in turn, withdrew the application and the court dismissed it.
Meanwhile, in his reaction, Governor Wada said "it's a victory for democracy. We have always expressed our confidence in the rule of law. And this is another one. I must express my gratitude to the good people of Kogi State for believing in us all this while that the legal battle have lasted.
"This victory is for all lovers of democracy and I call on all our opponents to come and let's build our state together.
"The state is bigger than any one of us and the progress of the state should be of concern to all of us.
"This victory is simply a tonic for me to strive to put smiles on the faces of our people in Kogi State by realising my transformation agenda."
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