“As it is, I cannot believe, and I say this with tears in my eyes, I cannot believe that in my lifetime I would see very senior members of the Bar bring applications of this nature to this court, which are aimed at desecrating the sanctity of this court; violating the well-known principle that decisions of the court are final; and destroying the esteem, with which this court is held.
Section 235 of the 1999 constitution provides: “Without prejudice to the powers of the president or of a governor of a state with respect to prerogative of mercy, no appeal shall lie to any other body or person from any determination from Supreme Court.” Consequently, the action opened up a window of opportunity for disgruntled politicians, who promptly indicated interest in trying their luck by filing for review of settled cases before the court, despite the fact that it is constitutionally the final court in the land.
One of the successful reviews was in the case of Bar Oriker Jev & Ors. v. Iyortom & Ors. [2015] NWLR 484. Interestingly it was an electoral matter too. The Supreme Court had in an earlier judgment in the matter ordered that INEC conduct run-off election. During the review, the court discovered that it made the said order based on a wrong interpretation of Section 133 in conjunction with Section 141 of the Electoral Act 2010 .
Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa reacting to this development said: “Interest Rei Publicae Res Jidicatas Non Rescindi . Let all candidates and their parties wait for the next election. We cannot Warri-Delta state based lawyer, Chief Albert Akpomudje described the development as unfortunate and warned that if it is not nipped in the bud, it would destroy the entire fabric of the judiciary. According to him, since the Constitution has said that the Supreme Court is the final court for appeals, a vanquished litigant should accept the outcome in stoic resignation.
For Kano based legal practitioner, Abubakar Sani, the reasons for the upsurge in requests for review of the apex court’s decisions are not far-fetched. “They are ill-motivated, irresponsible and smack of abuse of judicial process. In this, lawyers must take the lion-share of the blame, because, as officers of the court, they ought to know better.
Having said that, Ugwummadu added that the dismissal of the review application does not completely remove the anxiety and confusion created in the mind of the people of Nigeria, particularly Bayelsans on the operation of the justice system. “This is also serious considering that the notion of justice itself is rooted in the confidence of the people,” he asserted.
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