By Ikechukwu Nnochiri

ABUJA – With barely 26 days to the impending general elections, a constitutional lawyer, Mr Austine Afolabi, has dragged the National Judicial Council, NJC; the Federal Judicial Service Commission, FJSC and the Attorney-General of the Federation before a Federal High Court in Abuja, challenging the locus of the embattled President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami, to set-up Election Petition Appeal Tribunals for the purposes of adjudicating over
electoral disputes that may arise after the forthcoming polls.

The plaintiff is also urging the high court to invoke its original jurisdiction and determine whether President Goodluck Jonathan should not remove Justice Salami from office immediately, contending that the on-going face-off between him the and the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu, will negatively affect the electoral process with regards to the constitution of the various election petition tribunals across the country.

Besides, he is asking the court to determine whether the Electoral Act as amended, makes any provision for the establishment of a body known as “election petition appeal tribunal” and whether such body is not alien to both the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act thereby rendering the purported powers of the President of the Court of Appeal to set same up un-exercisable, being ultra-vires his powers and jurisdiction as prescribed by law.

Listed as defendants in the suit are, Justice Salami, his office, the NJC, the FJSC, the AGF, the Senate, the Senate Committee on Judiciary and President Jonathan as the 1st to 8th defendants respectively.