On Tuesday, Bayo Balogun, a member of the House of Representatives, announced that the green chamber is progressing with a bill aimed at amending the 1999 Constitution to designate the Court of Appeal as the final authority on governorship election petitions in Nigeria.
Balogun, who serves as the Chairman of the House Committee on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), made this statement during the News Source Today programme on Tuesday.
“One benefit of this provision is that while the state and National Assembly cases are in the Tribunal, the presidential and governorship matters will be handled at the Appeal Court.
Thus, as they transition from the Appeal to the Supreme Court, the state and National Assembly cases will concurrently proceed to the Appeal Court. This will create a more balanced process,” he remarked.
“Our current objective is to shorten the tribunal duration to 90 days and the appeal period to 50 days,” he further noted.
“Additionally, we have established a 21-day window for filing petitions and a 14-day period for appeals. When we aggregate these timeframes, we arrive at a total of 185 days.
“The legislation we are drafting stipulates that elections must occur no later than 185 days prior to the swearing-in ceremony. Once we eliminate this from the constitution, we will incorporate the relevant provisions into the Electoral Act.”
The lawmaker indicated that this legislation would compel INEC to conduct elections earlier than February, allowing for the resolution of post-election litigations before the conclusion of a governor’s term.
He clarified that there would no longer be three levels of appeal for any individual following a governorship election.
If enacted, the bill will exclude the Supreme Court from the appeal process concerning governorship disputes.
Currently, disputes arising from governorship elections can be escalated from the Tribunal to the Court of Appeal and ultimately to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court serves as the ultimate authority for petitions regarding governorship elections, whereas the Court of Appeal acts as the final adjudicator for cases related to the National and State Houses of Assembly elections.
The proposed legislation, entitled ‘A Bill for an Act to Alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to Designate the Court of Appeal as the Final Appeal Court for Governorship, National, and State Houses of Assembly Elections,’ was introduced by Nnamdi Ezechi, who represents the Ndokwa East/Ndokwa West/Ukwuani Constituency.
