By Chris Agbiti

When the Sokoto division of Court of Appeal was set up, the matter was transferred Kaduna to Sokoto. The five man panel led by Justice Musa Mohammed Dattijoheard the appeal and had long written the judgement since January this year, but the court seems to have been perpetually stopped from delivering its judgment, no thanks to the unabashed undue interference from the least expected quarters. Twice the appellate court fixed date for judgment, twice it was stopped.

First February 24, 2010 was fixed for the delivery of verdict but an INEC lawyer, Yahaya Mahmood Esq who had all along, showed neutrality suddenly made a volte face and accused the Court of Appeal of bias in a petition written to the Nigeria Judicial Council (NJC) and on the basis of this, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu in his capacity as NJC Chairman, in an unprecedented move, arrested the judgment. Investigations into the petition were carried out and no substance was found on the petition. The appellate court then fixed a new date, March16 and on March 15, Alhaji Wamakko’s lead counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN, in another strange legal abracadabra, took out an oral application to the apex court to stop the delivery of judgment and the Supreme Court obliged.

It is highly regrettable that the Supreme Court of Nigeriaand the NJC that ought to be at the fore front in the realisation of the social engineering role of law have, with the greatest respect, not lived up to expectation. The order from the Supreme Court arresting the judgment of the Court of Appeal was, to say the least, an embarrassment to the legal profession. It beats one’s imagination as to why the apex court would choose to elevate technicalities over and above substantial justice by taking such a permissive stance of allowing the dilatory antics of both the PDP and Alhaji Wamakko’s counsel to set aside the withdrawal order it earlier gave in respect of Alhaji Dingyadi’s interlocutory appeal still pending at the apex court, when the latter, out of wise discretion, saw the need for such a withdrawal in other to facilitate an expeditious hearing of the main election petitionappeal at the Court of Appeal. This is made worse by the fact that electoral matter is a public interest lawthat directly touches on the collective will and wellbeing of the people in a democratic society.

In any case, the NJC has no power to stop an appellate court from delivering verdict. The tradition is that the judgment is usually delivered and if any jurist is found to have been compromised or abused his oath of office, disciplinary action will be meted on such. But the judgement would stay! Examples of justices who were sacked by NJC for not covering themselves in glory abound in Nigeria. The case in Akwa Ibom during Victor Attah is still fresh. So why is the case of Sokoto different? Injustice is injustice whether it rears its ugly head in the desert or coast.

To think that this is happening in a state as Sokoto that prides itself as the seat of the caliphate is a big dent on the much revered caliphate. The legal profession and indeed, the entire body polity of Nigeria, should be spared further assault and infamy on facts that are glaringly within the public domain and allow the law and only the law, to rule to the exclusion of the whims and caprices of man. It is only by such norms that leadership enthronement can be made subject to the collective choice of the majority and not the faceless cabals strutting our political landscape.