Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State
has won the first appeal delivered by the Court of Appeal in Abuja with
respect to the judgments of the Federal High Court in Abuja June 27
removing him from office.
Ikpeazu’s appeal was with respect to the
ruling delivered by Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court in
Abuja on July 8 in which the judge insisted that he had jurisdiction to
hear a motion for stay of execution of his earlier judgments delivered
on June 27 even after the appeals against the judgments had been
entered.
The Justice Helen Ogunwumiju-led
five-man bench unanimously agreed in their judgment that Justice Abang
erroneously assumed jurisdiction to hear the motion and adjourned it
till a later date.
Justice Philomina Ekpe, who read the
lead judgment, held that what Justice Abang ought to have done in line
with time-honoured doctrine of “stari decisis” was to have transferred
the motion to the Court of Appeal for determination.
She also held that the Justice Abang
wrongly interpreted the provisions of Order 4(10) and (11) of the Court
of Appeal rules when he held that the said provisions were only
applicable to an interlocutory ruling of the lower court and when a
final judgment in a suit had been delivered.
She also held that Justice Abang lacked
jurisdictions to interpret the provisions of the Court of Appeal being
the rules of a superior court.
In her contribution, Justice Ogunwumiju,
held that the trial judge “deliberately stood the law on its head” by
justifying his jurisdiction to hear the motion when appeal has been
entered.
