By EMEKA MAMAH
MAIDUGURI— Borno State Government has applauded the judgment of the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal which upheld the victory of Governor Kashim Shettima, describing it as courageous.

Commissioner for Home Affairs, Information and Culture, Mr. Inuwa Bwala, said before the judgment, there was apprehension in the state that the dislocations in the judiciary following the arrest of judgment of the election petition in Sokoto State could happen in Borno as the tribunal’s judgment was arrested on two occasions before it was finally delivered in Abuja, weekend.

He said: ’’On two occasions, the ruling of the trial tribunal was arrested; first via an interlocutory order, and second by a verbal administrative order, disbanding the panel of judges, by the President of the Court of Appeal.

’Both orders were seen as curious, controversial and assaulting on the sensibilities of legal pundits.

’’The question many are still asking long after the case has been decided at the lower tribunal has been of what particular interest is the Borno case to, especially the Court of Appeal?

’’The first arrest which was quashed by the Supreme Court came on the eve of the delivery of the judgment by the tribunal, while the second was only a few minutes before resumption after the Supreme Court order.”

’’The order of the Supreme Court was unambiguous to the effect that no court has the powers to halt proceedings or arrest the ruling of a tribunal in an election matter, because election litigations are time-bound.

’’It was apparent that, the President of the court of appeal may have been misled into disbanding the tribunal, thus making an equally hasty reversal of his order.

’’That reversal, although no reason was ever given for the initial action, may have saved the judiciary a big embarrassment, as the disbandment earlier had tended to set a very dangerous precedent to the court hierarchy; in which a court of lower jurisdiction overrules that of higher jurisdiction.

‘’Before the error was corrected, many Nigerians had expressed fears that the situation that surrounded the unresolved controversy in the election petition for the 2007 governorship elections in Sokoto was about repeating itself.

’’The Sokoto situation, which sparked off fears that the governor was about being removed, only for events to take a dramatic turnaround will remain a reference point for controversy in the country’s legal history.

‘’It will take the judiciary a long time to cleanse itself of the mess generated by that controversy. Many believe that the immediate past President of the Court of appeal, Justice Ayo salami was sacrificed on the altar of that controversy,’’ Bwala said, in a statement made available to Vanguard, adding however that the judgement Governor Kashim had would not discriminate against anybody but would rather carry the opposition along.