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The Action Congress
of Nigeria (ACN) has picked another issue with the Amended Electoral
Act 2010 and urged the National Assembly to stop the plan to use the
Court of Appeal as the court of first instance in presidential and
gubernatorial election petitions.

In a statement by
the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the party
reminded the National Assembly that the Court of Appeal is not a trial
court, and must not be saddled with such a responsibility in the case
of election petitions. It noted that even if all the positions in the
Court of Appeal are filled, the court cannot have more than 70 judges.

Section 133(2) then
goes further to define the “tribunal or court” as “in the case of
Presidential or Governorship election, the Court of Appeal; and in the
case of any other elections under this Bill, the election tribunal
established under the Constitution or by this Bill.” Explaining the
problem this will create; ACN stated that “assuming all 70 judges are
in place, (which is not the case at present), the number can only
constitute election petition tribunals for only 14 states, going by the
constitutional stipulation of five members per panel.”

“Even if the number
is reduced to three per panel, as has been suggested in some circles,
we still won’t have enough judges to go round more than 23 states,” the
party stated. This call is coming after the Nigerian Bar Association,
in reviewing the amended Electoral Act, also warned of an “inherent
danger and risk” which can occur after the election, with a potential
overwhelming of the Appeal Court judges by the election petition as
prescribed by the Act.

Urgent review

Arguing further the
need for this urgent review, the ACN noted that another problem
limiting the petition to Appeal Courts will cause, is the time
constraint in hearing the petitions as stipulated by the Electoral Act.
“There is also the problem of time limitation (180 days) regarding when
petitions must be heard and judgements delivered. If the deluge of
election petitions that greeted the 2007 general elections is anything
to go by, there could be over a hundred petitions after the 2011
gubernatorial polls alone, and the Court of Appeal cannot possible cope
with this huge number of cases.

“Needless to say
that while the election petitions last, the over-burdened Court of
Appeal will not be able to carry out its statutory function of hearing
appeals from High Courts, and this will have unimaginable implications
for the country and her citizens.” The ACN, therefore, called on the
National Assembly to, as a matter of urgency, use the opportunity
provided by the call for another amendment to the Electoral Act in the
wake of Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) demand for
an extension of time for the 2011 elections, to take another look at
the Act to prevent the Court of Appeal from becoming the court of first
instance for gubernatorial election petitions.

The party said the old system of using judges from the High Courts
to constitute the gubernatorial election panels must be retained.