Follow Us on Google
Dismisses Prof Shija’s appeal
From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
The Supreme Court has cleared the coast for Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia to participate in the forthcoming governorship election in Benue State as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
This followed the dismissal of the appeal filed by a member of the party, Prof. Terhemba Shija challenging the May 27, 2022, primary election of the party that produced Rev. Fr. Alia as its governorship candidate of the party in the State, for being statute barred by law.
Having discovered that the litigation was initiated after the constitutional period of 14 days, the five-member panel of the apex court led by Justice John Okoro urged counsel to the appellant, Kenneth Ikonni to withdraw his appeal.
It was counsel to the APC, Matthew Burkaa, SAN, who drew the attention of the court to a letter by the appellant, Prof. Shija in which he complained that the primary election of the party held on May 26 and 27, 2023, was “charade.”
Burkaa, then submitted that the appellant by his own letter which exhibited as exhibit C, the cause of action arose on May 26, therefore rendering his appeal statute barred going by the status of limitation.
In the said letter, which was read out in open court, Prof. Shija said “he disassociated from the event of May 26” because according to him, it was a “charade.”
Efforts by counsel to the appellant, Ikonni, to prove that the cause of action arose after the declaration of results of the primary election, proved futile going by the heading and content of his client’s letter.
Ikonni had insisted that the cause of action arose on May 28, when the results of the primary election were announced.
However, the court noted that going by the letter, the cause of action arose on May 26 and not May 28 as he claimed.
The court held that the matter ought to have been instituted within 14 days stipulated by section 285 of the 1999 constitution.
At the end of the arguments, it became glaring that the suit was filed outside the 14 days allowed by law and was subsequently dismissed by a unanimous decision of the Justices.
Prof Terhemba Shija, who is one of the gubernatorial aspirants of the party in the state, got a victory against Alia at the Makurdi division of the Court of Appeal, where the court in its judgment ordered fresh elections in eleven Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state.
The court further ordered APC and Fr Alia to pay the cost of N2 million to Shija.
The affected LGAs are Gboko, Gwer- East, Gwer-West, Guma, Katsina, Logo Makurdi, Otukpo, Ukum, Tarka and Vandeikya, the home LGA of Fr Alia.
Justice Biobelle Georgewill who delivered the lead judgment held that the appellant, Prof. Shija “was able to prove that there was no gubernatorial primary election conducted by the APC on May 27, 2022.”
It however held that Shija failed to establish that the party did not hold a rerun governorship election on June 9, 2022.
The Court gave the order while ruling on the appeal filed by Shija against the judgment of the Federal High Court, Makurdi, which dismissed his suit challenging the APC gubernatorial primaries in the state.
However, Shija was dissatisfied with the judgment of the Court of Appeal on the ground that there was no basis for a re-run and decided to take the matter further to the Supreme court.
He argued that since the court accepted that there was no APC governorship primary election in Benue State for the 2023 polls at the first instance, there is no basis for a rerun election.
The appellant urged the Supreme Court to hold that the APC has no governorship candidate in Benue State.
Speaking after the court proceedings, the APC Legal Adviser in Benue State, Fidelis Nyim, described the judgment as victory for the party and call on all party members to come together and work for the victory of the party in the state.
