Nigeria's Supreme court sacks Delta state lawmaker, orders salary refund
The Supreme Court on Friday sacked a
member of the Delta State House of Assembly representing Ugelli North
Constituency II, Mr. Edoja Akpodiete.
The
apex court ordered him to refund to the state coffers all the salaries
and allowances he had collected since he had been occupying the seat
since 2011.
It was the first time the
Supreme Court would be ordering any person to refund the money earned
from office that he or she illegally occupied.
In
its lead judgement delivered by Justice Walther Onnoghen, the Supreme
Court ordered that Mr. Jenkins Gwede of the Democratic Peoples Party to
take over the seat from Akpodiete.
The
court held that the Independent National Electoral Commission had
wrongfully issued the certificate of return to Akpodiete even when it
was aware that he had ceased to be the sponsored candidate of the
Democratic Peoples Party over 45 days before the state House of Assembly
election was conducted on April 26, 2011.
The
apex court described INEC’s action as worrisome and therefore awarded a
cost of N650,000 each
against the electoral body and Edoja.
The
court affirmed the documents tendered by Gwede’s lawyer, Mr. Ikhide
Ehighelua, showing that the DPP had notified INEC of its choice of Gwede
as its candidate after Akpodiete formally withdrew from the election
and the party returned the N2m he paid for nomination form to him.
Justice
Onnoghen held that the INEC had “foisted on the electorate of Ugelli
North Constituency II of Delta State House of Assembly a pretender to
the seat who not only withdrew from the election in writing but
collected the deposit he paid to the 4th respondent (DPP) for the said
election.”
It therefore ordered that
the 1st respondent (INEC) to issue the appellant with a certificate of
return in respect of the House of Assembly election held on April 26,
2011.
A Federal High Court in Asaba
had dismissed Gwede’s case in a judgement delivered on June 27, 2012 for
lack of jurisdiction to entertain the matter because it was election
related.
Through his lawyer, Mr.
Ikhide Ehighelua, Gwede had appealed to the Court of Appeal in Benin
which in its judgement delivered on May 22, 2013 had resolved the issues
raised in his favour but refused to make any consequential order.
Source: The Punch