Why many judgements should not get to Supreme Court – Ozekhome

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mike Ozekhome said many judgements should not get to the Supreme Court, saying the docket of the apex court is overcrowded and the justices are overwhelmed.

Ozekhome stated this in an interview with Arise Television on Monday.


He said, “I was one of those who felt like the supreme court should not be bothered with too many of these; the house of assembly, house of representative, and senate (cases) could end at the appeal level, but from what we have seen particularly in the Plateau scenario, there was a great miscarriage of justice.



“The supreme court today spared no words, they used legal and judicial koboko (cane) to flog the court of appeal for what they termed miscarriage of justice, perverse judgments.

“In many of the cases, particularly the Plateau state, two senators’ positions were reversed, three house of representative were reversed, and 11 house of assembly were reversed. If all these cases had gone to the supreme court, all of them would have their seats retained.

“On what grounds were they reversed? The court of appeal surprisingly was saying the PDP had no structure in Plateau state. When did PDP structure, membership of a political party, nomination, congresses, and primaries become part and parcel of matters that the court can have jurisdiction?” he said.

Ozekhome further stated, “Today, the Supreme Court said not even the election tribunal has jurisdiction, let alone the court of appeal. And they voided the decision of the governorship. They would also have voided the decision on the two senatorial candidates, three houses of representatives, and the 11 house of assembly.

“Injustice has been done to them. What is the remedy now? That is why I am going to review my stance with all respect, humility as a constitutional lawyer, to say that, yes, these cases should go to the supreme court as a final court of the land.

“We saw grave injustice, people voted for by the electorates were removed by the Court of Appeal which has nop jurisdiction over the matter, I’m sad about it and it should never happen again,” he said.