@UtohPaul @naijama @tysalihu I am happy to finally talk about the SC decision in Hope Uzodinma v Ihedioha where the Supreme Court declared the former as the rightful winner of the election and ordered the latter to vacate his seat. The Court also rejected an application to review the judgment.
#TheDiscuss
#TheDiscuss
@UtohPaul @naijama @tysalihu Since the Supreme Court has now brought the saga to an end, it is now right for me to express my views, both on the substantive judgment and on the application for review which was rejected yesterday. There is no more the question of it being sub judice.
#TheDiscuss
#TheDiscuss
@UtohPaul @naijama @tysalihu But let me admit that I have not read the full text of the Supreme Court decision yesterday where it rejected the application for review of the substantive judgment (which I have read). But I believe there are enough facts on ground to express my opinion. #TheDiscuss
@UtohPaul @naijama @tysalihu The substantive judgment IMO was curious. For a judgment with such far reaching implications, it was astonishingly simplistic. The ignorance of the judge is the calamity of the innocent. This is why Judges are so important and must be very thorough in their decision. #TheDiscuss
@UtohPaul @naijama @tysalihu From the introductory part of the judgement it is clear that Uzodinma's case was built on the claim that he scored 96,458 votes in 3523 PUs but got a whopping 213,695 votes in 388 PUs. Meanwhile the ousted Governor Emeka Ihedioha scored a mere 1903 votes in 388 PUs. #TheDiscuss
@UtohPaul @naijama @tysalihu Further, Hope Uzodinma did not even say what the other candidates scored in the 388 PUs. It would have been obvious to even a law student let alone the Law Lords that there was something smelling and it was not fish. #TheDiscuss
@UtohPaul @naijama @tysalihu For me, the Supreme Court ought NOT to have swallowed hook, line and sinker the claim by Hope Uzodinma that he scored those number of votes which in some cases exceeded the total number of registered or accredited voters in the PUs. #TheDiscuss
@UtohPaul @naijama @tysalihu It's like granting someone a declaration that he owns the National Assembly building simply because he filed a suit against the AGF and the National Assembly to claim that he owns the building and the defendants failed to file a counter-claim. #TheDiscuss
@UtohPaul @naijama @tysalihu Even more problematic is the fact that the Supreme Court did not state how Hope Uzodinma satisfied the second limb of the constitutional requirement of attaining 1/4 of the votes cast in 2/3rd LGAs. #TheDiscuss
@UtohPaul @naijama @tysalihu The Court thus had two options yesterday, they could either have admited to have erred in the judgment and granted the application for review or insist that they did not, and dismiss the application for lacking in merit. They chose the latter. It doesn't end there. #TheDiscuss
@UtohPaul @naijama @tysalihu Where an application is lacking in merit, the Court ought to dismiss same and punish the applicant and/or his counsel with punitive cost. They did not do the latter, and that was instructive. #TheDiscuss
@UtohPaul @naijama @tysalihu It's like football. Where a player goes to ground under contact in the penalty box, two things are involved. It is either he was brought down [in which case it is a penalty] or he dived [in which he is given a yellow card for simulation]. #TheDiscuss
@UtohPaul @naijama @tysalihu We saw the Court award N60m against counsel to the ousted Bayelsa Governor-Elect for filing a similar applx. And there was widespread acceptance of the verdict. So one would have expected the SC to be consistent at this time and award a similar cost against Ihediowa. #TheDiscuss
@UtohPaul @naijama @tysalihu The fact that the Imo applx was latter in time to the Bayelsa one meant that the SC even had more basis to award cost against Mr Kanu Agabi, SAN for failing to withdraw the application in view of their decision from a week ago. But they didn't, and it says a lot. #TheDiscuss
@UtohPaul @naijama @tysalihu As a colleague of mine said yesterday, and rightly too in my opinion, it appears that the Supreme Court was more interested in preserving its finality than in ensuring that justice is done. #TheDiscuss
