Chief Bello Fadile, a retired colonel, former director of Legal service in the Nigerian Army and one time gubernatorial aspirant in the state, pooh-poohed the opinion being expressed in some quarters that the Supreme Court ought to have excluded Kogi from the judgment.
“There is no way Kogi should have been excluded when Ibrahim Idris was the first to go to court. At any rate, it is still our disrespect for Rule of Law that brought us to where we are today. Ordinarily, we should have waited for the outcome of the court cases before conducting the election. It is also part of our laws that when a matter is in court, concerned parties should not do anything but wait for the outcome. As a fact, the Supreme Court came down heavily on the PDP for delaying proceedings by bringing series of preliminary objections- all in an attempt to frustrate the case. Nevertheless, the issue before the court has been resolved in favour of INEC and INEC can now conduct election. As far as the law and judgment stand, no election has taken place in Kogi State,” Fadile said.
Fred Agbaje, a constitutional lawyer, said: “if Idris’ tenure ended in May 2011, according to the ruling, it then means that Wada’s election was a nullity.
“If Idris’ tenure ended in May 2011, it means that whatever happened thereafter is illegal. Can you build something on nothing and expect it to stand? The election that brought in Wada was illegal and should not stand. He has the right to seek legal action on this, but going by the ruling of the Supreme Court, he has no case,” Agaje said.
