The Supreme Court will today commence hearing on the suit seeking to nullify two separate judgments that barred the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from conducting elections in Kogi and 4 other states in the April 26 governorship elections.
INEC had approached the apex court, praying it to set aside the decisions of a Federal High Court and the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, which had in their separate judgments, extended the tenure of the five governors beyond May 29 2011.
INEC is urging the Supreme Court to hold that the tenure of governors Ibrahim Idris of Kogi state, Aliyu Wammako (Sokoto), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Liyel Imoke (Cross River) and Timipre Sylva (Bayelsa), ought to have expired on May 29 this year.
Meanwhile, the Kogi-born Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke Bello (SAN) has disqualified himself from appearing in the matter today as an amicus-curea (friend of the court).
The panel had invited him alongside a former AGF, Chief Richard Akinjide and renowned constitutional lawyer, Prof. Itse Sagay, to attend the hearing session with a view to assisting the court in determining the judicial fate of the amended section 180(2) of the 1999 constitution which is the subject matter of the suit.
However, owing to an objection, the governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva, rose against the appearance of the Adoke as an amicus-curea in the matter, he has written to the panel, requesting to be excused from the case.
Sylva had in a petition he forwarded to the CJN via his lawyer, Chief Ladi Rotimi-Williams, argued that granting such status to the AGF in the case would amount to making him an indirect judge in his own case.
He specifically drew the attention of the CJN to the fact that the AGF was equally a defendant in the substantive suit, insisting that he was therefore bereft of the locus to act as an unbiased amicus-curie.
Sequel to the development, the apex court has invited Chief G.O.K. Ajayi to take the place earlier reserved for the AGF.
