Kano Guber: Odinkalu Explodes, Says “Appeal Court Error CTC Judgment Not Within Slip Rule”

Professor Chidi Odinkalu, law professor and former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), has said that the Court of Appeal’s reported move to correct the Certified True Copy of its judgment on Kano State governorship election, is not within the ambit of Slip Rule.

Theliberationnews can authoritatively recall that the Court of Appeal in its verbally read judgment upheld the decision of the Election Tribunal by ordering the removal of the incumbent governor of Kano State from office.

But quite shockingly in its issued certified copy, the appellate court, in what it termed typographical error, resolved issues in the appeal in favour of the appellant, Governor Kabir Yusuf of the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP), and set aside the ruling of the Kano Governorship Election Tribunal which earlier sacked the Governor.

The appellate court also ordered the All Progressives Congress (APC) to pay Governor Yusuf N1 million.

According to the court document, the appeal court set aside the ruling of the election tribunal in the petition of the APC, PT/KN/GOV/01/2023 between the APC and the governor, and resolved all the issues in the appeal against the 1st respondent.

But reacting to the court document on his X handle, Odinkalu lamented the high level decay of the Nigerian judicial system.

According to him, the only way to understand the Appeal Court contradiction is probably that the court changed the judgment after the judges had concluded deliberations.

“When we say the judiciary in Nigeria is crooked, people wonder how so. Look: the Court of Appeal in the Kano governorship case resolved all the issues “in favour of the appellant & against the 1st Respondent.” Yet it found the appeal lacking in merit & liable to be dismissed. Explain!

“The only way to understand or explain this is that the Court of Appeal changed the judgment after they had concluded deliberations. If this does not persuade people as to how bad things are, I don’t know what will.

“I am hearing this evening that the court has been asking the lawyers to return the judgment for “correction”. But this does not fall within the ambit of the Slip Rule. This is Judicial Corruption on the face of the record,” the law professor twitted.

Theliberationnews believes that any request by the appellate court for the return of the CTC for correction is, with due respect to the Court of Appeal, ultra vires its powers since in law it has become functus officio.