Supreme Court adjusts hearing date in appeals against Mimiko

The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mariam Aloma-Mukhtar, has brought forward hearing in the four appeals, seeking to unseat Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State.                                                          
  The appeals were lodged against the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which declared Mimiko as the valid winner of the state’s governorship election conducted in April 2011.

  The Supreme Court had earlier fixed September 24, 2013, to commence hearing in the four appeals filed by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Governor Mimiko and the party that sponsored him, the Labour Party (LP).


  However, upon concerns raised by interested parties that hearing the appeal on September 24, 2013, will render the suit “dead” and “academic as it would have breached the mandatory 60 days to determine election petition appeals, Justice Aloma-Mukhtar decided to adjust the hearing date to Tuesday, August 27, 2013.”

  By that decision, the Supreme Court will sit on the appeals while its vacation subsists. It is an uncommon practice for the justices of the apex court to sit on appeal while on vacation.                                                             
  Specifically, a group, Concerned Ondo Professionals (COP), raised the alarm over the September 24, 2013, date given by the apex court for the hearing in the said appeals. 
                                        
  The group said the date falls outside the 60-day period within which the apex court must hear and determine the appeals, adding that it has generated tension in the state.   
                                   
  Speaking at a news conference, President of the group, Mr. Morakinyo Ogele, prayed Justice Aloma-Mukhtar to reverse the date if it is an error or offer a convincing legal explanation for it. “As we move closer to the statutory 60 days within which the Supreme Court will deliver its judgment, anxiety grows in geometric proportion. Expectedly, the people thought the judgment would be delivered on or before September 3, 2013.                      
                        
But contrary to this, the Supreme Court on August 20, 2013, issued a notice of hearing wherein September 24 was picked as the official date of hearing in the matter. By the provision of the constitution, the case would have been statute-barred by that time and the Supreme Court will no longer have jurisdiction to hear it.”         
                                    
  Ogele added: “Since the pronouncement of the date, there was palpable tension in Ondo State. People are anxious and disturbed because of their commitment to clean polls. We are equally disturbed. We felt it was an error but only realised we needed to speak out to douse the growing tension that finds expression in the reactions of the people to it.”

www.ngrguardiannews.com