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Thursday, March 28, 2024

#SoundOff: Akwa Ibom – The Comical Errors At The Court Of Appeal

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[dropcap]I[/dropcap] was so sure that the judgements of the lower courts, particularly that of the Court of Appeal, were perverse and made no sense in law. I am so grateful to the supreme court for upholding the true position of the law

Why did the Court of Appeal say that because Obong Attah and Don Etiebet did not vote in their respective polling units, then elections in the entire state must be cancelled?

Why did the courts below agree with the All Progressives Congress (APC) that there was no election, and yet there was over voting? Pray God, how do you have over voting when there was no election?

File: President, Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa (l) with the former President (r) Justice Ayo Salami at the Valedictory Court Session of the Court in honour of Justice Salami in Abuja on Thursday, October 31, 2013  | 2013
File: President, Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa (l) with the former President (r) Justice Ayo Salami at the Valedictory Court Session of the Court in honour of Justice Salami in Abuja on Thursday, October 31, 2013 | 2013

Does the claim of over voting not presuppose that there was an election?

Why did the Court of Appeal rely so heavily on card readers when it is elementary knowledge that mere INEC guidelines can not override substantive law?

Why did the Court of Appeal ignore its earlier judgement in Ambode/Agbaje case that, as at now, card readers cannot form the basis for nullification of election in Nigeria?

Why did the Court of Appeal ignore the settled law that petitioners in election cases must prove alleged irregularities unit by unit?

Why did the courts below rely so heavily on security reports to cancel an election, when the the makers of such reports were not called so as to give the other side the opportunity to cross examine them in court?

Does the Court of Appeal not know, what every law student should know, that the makers of documents must be the ones to tender them in court, unless they are dead or can not be reached, etc?

Is it that the security agencies that made the report are no longer in existence or could not be reached?

Pray God, why did a superior court like the Court of Appeal lend itself to such theatre of comical errors?

Somebody please tell me why.

Aniefiok I. Udoabasi is a legal practitioner and Head of Practice at The Brook Chambers. He is a chartered arbitrator and public affairs analyst. Connect with him on Facebook.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.

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