22nd July, 2019
The Supreme Court has rejected an application by the All Progressives Congress asking it to review its last judgment in which it voided the party’s participation in the last elections in Zamfara State.
A five-man panel of the court, led by Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour, in a ruling on Monday morning, struck out the application, argued by senior lawyer Robert Clarke (SAN).
Justice Rhodes-Vivour in his lead judgment held that the application was incompetent, time barred and the court has no jurisdiction in the matter.
“If all the necessary documents that are supposed to have been brought are not brought then the application is incompetent.
“The appellant only filed an appeal on only the lead judgment leaving the judgment by other members of the panel.
“The Supreme Court has no jurisdiction over the matter because anything that has to do with pre-election matter must be brought within 60 days after a decision had been delivered,’’ he said.
Justice Rhodes-Vivour further held that the consequential orders made were part and parcel of the pre-election matter and it was an abuse asking the apex court to review its judgment or orders.
“We don’t seat on appeal over our own decision. We have no jurisdiction over this matter,’’ he said.
Robert Clarke,SAN, the counsel to the appellant had said that the purpose of the appeal was for the apex court to take a second look at its decision and the consequential order.
He contended that the orders were made out of jurisdiction and had denied his client fair hearing.
The apex Court on May 24 nullified the elections of all the candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara in the 2019 general elections.
The court ruled that the ruling party did not conduct valid primaries in the build-up to the elections.
A five-member panel of the court held that “a party that has no valid candidates cannot be said to have emerged winner of the general elections’’.
“The runner-ups are expected to be declared winners by the electoral body, INEC’’.
Before the general election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it would not allow the APC field candidates in Zamfara because the party did not hold primaries within the stipulated time.
The controversy among leaders of the party in the state led to the inability to hold the primaries within the stipulated time.
Two different courts in Zamfara and Abuja later gave conflicting decisions on the position of INEC.
A High Court sitting in Gusau, Zamfara State, ruled that the APC actually conducted primaries in the state and should be allowed to present candidates for the elections while an Abuja court ruled otherwise.
The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, on February 21 set aside the judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja, for ‘lack or want of jurisdiction’ on the part of the lower court.
(*Read: http://staging.pmnewsnigeria.com/2019/05/24/supreme-court-awards-zamfara-to-pdp/)
Since the Supreme Court verdict in May, the APC nursed hopes that its members could salvage something from the electoral ruins. On June 24, the state chairman, Alhaji Lawali Liman said the branch was trying to ensure that candidates who were selected unopposed were removed from Supreme Court list.
“We held a meeting recently with the party’s National Chairman in Abuja who informed me that our party has a window to challenge the action of the INEC following the Supreme Court ruling that nullified our election in the state.
“Since the matter taken to the court centred on irregularities of primaries, we had 13 candidates for the state House of Assembly, three for the Senate and two for the House of Representatives”
“These were those who contested unopposed and the primaries did not affect them.
“INEC was too hasty to declare the party with the second highest votes because the exact directive of the Supreme Court was that the next party with the ‘requisite spread should be declared and by these, our issues were not taken into consideration,” Liman said.