Atiku vs Buhari: Supreme Court jettisons age-long tradition
By Andrew Orolua
Abuja – The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN)
The Apex Court overlook the allegation made by the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP and the age long tradition of appointing the seven most senior justices on the panel.
The most senior justices Justice Nnali Sylvester NgwutaJustice Mary Ukaego Peter- Odili Justice Kumai Bayang Akaahs couldn’t make the panel.
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The Coalition of United Political Parties raised the alarm last month that they have uncovered plan to manipulate the age long tradition of appointing the seven most senior justices to hear Atiku’s appeal .
Cupp had claimed that it has intercepted what it called “a secret list” that showed that the age long practice of picking the seven most senior Justices of the Supreme Court for the job will be jettisoned.
The coalition’s national spokesman, Imo Ugochinyere, made the allegation at a press conference in Abuja on Friday.
He had said, “We are here to inform Nigerians today that the opposition has intercepted credible intelligence, hardcore intelligence of a last assault on the institution of judiciary represented by the Supreme Court of Nigeria, where there is ongoing perfected desperate attempt by the ruling APC government working with their unrepented friends in judiciary to constitute members of presidential election panel with justices whose only reason of being selected is the guaranteed assurance that no matter what the law says, the President must be returned and affirmed against all known principles of our constitutional governance.
“We have intercepted a secret list of a seven-man panel of the Justices of Supreme Court about to be announced by the Chief Justice of Nigeria in a manner that jettisoned the age-long tradition of selecting the members of the panel on the order of seniority.”
Meanwhile , the panel has taken a ten minute break to enable the lead counsel of Atiku and PDP , Dr Livy Uzoukwu resolve whether they will accept the court stand on the procedure to be adopted that all the appeals will abide in the decision on the main appeal.
Uzoukwu SAN has said the procedure will shut their appeal complaining on the Court of Appeal decision that struck out some of its paragraphs which were considered fatal to the petition.
The court position is that the interlocutory matter is spent but Uzoukwu argued that the Apex Court is important as the final court and could incorporate it’s decision on the struck out paragraphs in the final judgment
