Supreme Court
ECOWAS Court set to resume from extended vacation on October 7
The ECOWAS Court will be resuming its activities on Oct. 7, after its three months vacation. This is contained in a statement issued in Abuja on Monday by the media office of the justices. The court will deliver judgment in nine cases filed against eight some member states. It added that the cases were also filed against Nigeria’s Cross River State and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) and listed in the latest course list released by the Registry of the Court for the period Sept. 25 to Oct. 28. According to the court, among those listed for judgment is a case filed by Counsellor Kabineh Muhammad Ja’neh, a former Justice of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Liberia against the government. “The former Justice is challenging his removal from office on the grounds that i...
Rivers government hands over 24 duplexes to judges
Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has handed over some finished blocks of duplexes to accommodate Judges in the state. Governor Wike also announced that N150 million has also been handed to Judges who opted for cash payments to build their own houses. The Governor made the announcement during the commissioning of the judges’ apartment in GRA, Port Harcourt. He said the building is in fulfilment of the promise made by his administration in 2015, in a move that is necessary to improve on the living conditions of the judges who contribute to the dispensation of justice in the country. “The Rivers State government now bears full responsibility to provide befitting accommodation for all Judicial officers of Rivers state origin beyond your service years for life. “Judges have a choice to receive...
Benue governor canvasses return to parliamentary system
Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom has called for a parliamentary system of government as a more cost-effective democratic alternative for Nigeria. While inaugurating the State Constitution Review Committee in Markudi, Ortom said, the parliamentary system provides opportunities for power-sharing such that smaller parties also participate in governance, stressing that it is more accountable and considerably less complex. According to the Governor, the current system of federalism where the Federal Government has constitutional powers in nearly 100 per cent performance while states and local governments only function 30 per cent or less is a distortion of the spirit and practice of federalism. He said that Nigeria needed a constitution that sets out a system in which the various tiers could s...
Northern governors congratulate Yahaya Bello over victory at Supreme Court
The Northern Governors Forum has congratulated Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi, over his election victory at the Supreme Court. The Chairman of the Forum and Governor of Plateau, Simon Lalong, congratulated Bello in a message by his Director of Press and Public Affairs, Dr Makut Macham, on Monday in Jos. Lalong said Bello’s victory was an affirmation of the mandate Kogi people entrusted on him, which he should work hard to justify. “The Supreme Court judgment affirming your election victory gives you an opportunity to settle down to serve your people and fulfill their aspirations without any distraction. “The people have already reposed their confidence in you and are looking up to you for the dividends of democracy,” he said. Lalong assured Bello that members of the Forum would continue to supp...
Kogi guber: Governor Bello floors PDP, Musa Wada at Supreme Court
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the petition of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Musa Wada, against the declaration of Governor Yahaya Bello of All Progressives Congress, APC as the winner of November 16 Kogi governorship election. In the judgment delivered on their behalf by Justice Uwani Abba Aji, the seven man panel of the apex court led by Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mohammed Tanko held that the appeal is devoid of merit and is accordingly dismissed in the unanimous judgement. The panel held that the petitioners abandoned their pleadings on their written briefs that the election was marred with irregularities at the lower courts. The panel therefore ruled that having failed to prove their allegations with results from the election and failed to prove that the respo...
Supreme Court upholds Kogi governor’s election
File Photo The Supreme Court, on Monday, affirmed the election of Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State. The apex court, dismissed an appeal the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Musa Wada, lodged to challenge the outcome of the gubernatorial election that held in the state on November 16, 2019. It upheld the earlier judgement of the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, which had on July 4, dismissed the case of the PDP and its candidate, and validated the majority decision of the Kogi State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal that affirmed governor Bello’s election victory. Though the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Ibrahim Tanko, led the seven-man panel that heard the case of the appellants, the lead judgement was however prepared by Justice Inyang Okoro and r...
Senator Okorocha not in alliance with Emeka Ihedioha to remove Governor Uzodinma – aide
Rochas Foundation A former Governor of Imo State, Senator Rochas Okorocha, has denied media reports that he is in alliance with ex-Governor Emeka Ihedioha to sack incumbent Governor Hope Uzodinma from office. Senator Okorocha, who denied the reports which he said was credited to the Director-General of (DG) of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the State, Cajetan Duke, advised that such claims should be stopped, maintaining that it is only ‘making a mockery of the APC.’ Sam Onwuemeodo, the media adviser to the former governor, speaking on behalf of Okorocha, disclosed this in a press statement in Owerri. According to the statement: “To say the least, Okorocha is not in alliance with Ihedioha for removing Governor Uzodinma or for any other reason. Those behind the story should stop makin...
Donald Trump orders US census to exclude illegal immigrants in setting Congress numbers
President Donald Trump ordered the US census Tuesday to exclude illegal immigrants in its population count for determining representation in Congress, a move that could boost long-term Republican strength. The unprecedented order challenges the long-accepted constitutional mandate to count every person in the country every 10 years, as the basis for determining representation in the 435 seat House of Representatives. “For the purpose of the reapportionment of representatives following the 2020 census, it is the policy of the United States to exclude from the apportionment base aliens who are not in a lawful immigration status,” Trump’s order said. Excluding undocumented migrants in setting Congressional districts “is more consonant with the principles of representative democracy,” the orde...
Rivers APC crisis: Appeal Court rules in suit against Igo Aguma
The Appeal Court on Thursday stayed proceedings in the appeal filed before it by Abott Ogbobula, the former Rivers State Caretaker Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Ogbobula is challenging the judgment of the High Court of Rivers State which affirmed Igo Aguma’s appointment as the party’s Caretaker Committee Chairman in Rivers state. A three-member panel of the appellate Court chaired by Justice Steven Adah in a ruling held that the Court can’t continue in the hearing of the case, as the first respondent has proved to the Court that an appeal has been entered. Ada said: “An affidavit is evidence of proof. The affidavit is showing that an appeal is before the Supreme Court. “The notice of appeal and other processes have been brought to our notice in respect of the ruling of t...
Supreme Court Makes Landmark Ruling Deeming Half of Oklahoma Native American Territory
Source: Brownie Harris / Getty It seems that the reckoning of the United States is having a positive impact on decisions for all people of color. According to The New York Times, on Thursday (Jul 9) in one of its final rulings of the year, the U.S. Supreme Court released a decision that designates a large portion of Oklahoma as tribal territory after conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, an appointee of Donald Trump, sided with the court’s four liberal judges in the landmark decision. “On the far end of the Trail of Tears was a promise. Forced to leave their ancestral lands in Georgia and Alabama, the Creek Nation received assurances that their new lands in the West would be secure forever,” Justice Gorsuch said on behalf of the Court. “In exchange for ceding ‘all their land, East of the...
PDP alleges plot to ‘derail’ Edo guber poll
The Peoples Democratic Party has alleged plots by the All Progressives Congress to use the trio of Governors Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State, Hope Uzodinma of Imo State, and Yahaya Bello of Kogi State to derail the September 19 Edo State Governorship Election. According to the party, the people of Edo were already aware that the trio “were selected by the APC to lead its campaign so as to force a combined formula of Kano and Kogi electoral violence as well as Imo State mandate robbery, to subvert the will of the people of Edo State in the governorship election.” This was contained in a statement signed by the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in Abuja, on Friday. It read in part, “The PDP described as pathetic that the APC only has a person who has become a butt of inter...
Suspension: Adams Oshiomhole withdraws application against Appeal Court ruling
Mr Adams Oshiomhole, on Tuesday, withdrew his application for stay of execution of the June 16, 2020 judgment of the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal which affirmed his suspension as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress. The withdrawal, his lawyers said, was in line with his concession to the dissolution of the National Working Committee and the subsequent appointment of a caretaker committee by the National Executive Committee of the party on June 25. Following the withdrawal of the motion, the three-man panel of the Court of Appeal led by Justice Eunice Onyemenam unanimously dismissed in a short ruling on Tuesday. Oshiomhole’s Ward 10 in Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State had in November 2019 suspended him as a member of the party for anti-party activit...
