Appeal Court orders transfer of pending election petitions to Abuja, Lagos divisions
President of the Court of Appeal of Nigeria, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, has directed the transfer of all pending election petitions in the 36 states of the federation to its divisions in Abuja and Lagos.
Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, the President of the Court of Appeal,
According to the Court of Appeal, the decision is informed by the need to mitigate political interference in the judicial process.
“As a result of this directive, all appellate cases stemming from the decisions of various election petition tribunals across the country will now be heard and resolved exclusively in the Abuja and Lagos divisions of the Court of Appeal. This move means that only two out of the court’s 20 divisions will handle all appellate cases arising from the judgments of election petition tribunals nationwide..
“This directive covers gubernatorial, national, and state assembly elections where the Court of Appeal serves as the final court of adjudication,” the directive read.
All appellate cases related to the 1,209 cases filed against the conduct of the 2023 general elections have now been reassigned to Abuja and Lagos for their adjudication.
The appeals such as the Lagos governorship election petitions which ruling is still being contested by the major challengers; Abdulazeez Adeniran (Jandor) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party (LP), as well as the Abia North senatorial election challenging the tribunal victory of Senator Orji Uzor Kalu.
The Court of Appeal President’s directive all means that political parties and their candidates with pending appeal cases must now adhere to this order by relocating to either Lagos or Abuja, as applicable, for the prosecution of their cases.
