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INEC's Absence Stalls Oni's Appeal against Fayemi

The Supreme Court has adjourned till 5th March 2013 hearing in an application filed by former governor of Ekiti State, Segun Oni, to set aside the Appeal Court judgment that removed him from office and declared Olukayode Fayemi, candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) as the elected governor.

Oni is challenging his removal on the ground that the suspended President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami who constituted, presided over the panel and wrote the judgment of the Appeal Court that sacked him from office had close ties with Senator Bola Tinubu, leader of Fayemi's ACN.

Oni's argument is that Salami was biased towards ACN in the judgment, and that such judgment should be consequently set aside.

Presiding when the matter came up on Tuesday, Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloma Mukhtar observed that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was not served with the hearing notice.

According to Chief Joe Kyari-Gadzama (SAN) who appeared for Oni, although INEC is a nominal party in the case it still deserves to be heard in the interest of fair hearing. He begged the court to grant a short adjournment because of the nature of the case.  

Justice Mukthar therefore adjourned the case to 5th March, which is the earliest date available.

In the brief settled on behalf of Oni by Professor, Ben Nwabueze (SAN), he argued that bias constitutes a proper ground for setting aside a judgment.

“Bias or likelihood of it makes a decision a nullity and is therefore a sufficient ground for the lower court to set aside its own judgment,” he argued.

Objecting to the submission in a preliminary objection, Fayemi, through his lawyer, Mr Olusola Baiyashea (SAN) noted that the Supreme Court does not have the jurisdiction to hear the appeal.

“This honourable court has no jurisdiction to entertain this appeal, being an appeal emanating from the decision of the court below in governorship election petition of Ekiti State, arising from the governorship election of 2007 to which Section 246 (3) of the 1999 Constitution is applicable.”