Indication emerged yesterday that the chief justice of Nigeria, Justice Dahiru Musdapher might have replaced the minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke, as a member of the committee to advise the Supreme Court on the tenure elongation suit before it.
Adoke was one of the lawyers invited by the apex court to advise it on the way to go in the appeal filed by INEC on the tenure of five governors.
According to a source close to the Supreme Court, the chief justice of Nigeria(CJN), Justice Dahiru Musdapher had replaced the AGF with a one-time lawyer to the late M.K.O Abiola, Chief G.K.O Ajayi, a senior advocate of Nigeria.
The Supreme Court recently invited a former attorney- general of the federation (AGF), Chief Richard Akinjide, a senior advocate of Nigeria; a renowned constitutional lawyer, Prof. Itse Sagay, a senior advocate of Nigeria and Adoke to come to the court to advise on the matter.
But barely a week after the invitation was extended to the trio, the Bayelsa State governor, Timipre Sylva objected to the inclusion of? Adoke? as amicus curie on the ground that the AGF was a party in the tenure elongation matter.
INEC is challenging the decision of the Court of Appeal, Abuja, which upheld the decision of an Abuja Federal High Court, extending the tenure of five governors beyond May 29, this year.
The beneficiaries are Ibrahim Idris (Kogi), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Timipre Sylva (Bayelsa), Aliyu Wamako (Sokoto) and Liyel Imoke (Cross River).
But in a letter written by the counsel to Bayelsa State, Chief Ladi Williams, a senior advocate of Nigeria to the chief justice of Nigeria, the state drew the CJN’s attention to the fact that the AGF was a respondent in the appeal.
It argued that a party to a case could not be an amicus in the same case.
In a related development, a Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting in Abuja will on Monday deliver judgement to determne between Alhaji Jibrin Isah and Captain Idris Wada on? who is the authentic candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)in the suit filed by Isah, asking? it to uphold the January primary election where he emerged as winner.
At the resumed hearing on Friday,counsel to Isah,Paul Erokoro, a senior advocate of Nigeria, argued that the plaintiff was nominated as PDP candidate in January 2011 and his name submitted to INEC, which was published? as a fulfilment of legal requirement.
Erokoro said that the January primary election was valid, adding that the electoral act provided that the primary election should be conducted not later than 60 days before the election and that it could be more than 60 days as long as it was below 60 days.
He argued further that the party did not fulfil the conditions for substitution as it did not inform the plaintiff that his name would be substituted. He therefore urged the court to uphold the January primary election.
Opposing the application,counsel to the PDP,Chief Olusola Oke submitted that a Federal High Court had earlier nullified the January election which saw Isah as the winner, adding that in the eyes of the law,there is no valid election