The Supreme Court will on Tuesday (tomorrow) break its vacation to hear the appeals filed against the election of Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State.
The Supreme Court is currently on vacation, and hearing of the appeals filed against the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Akure Division, which affirmed Mimiko's election, was earlier scheduled for September 24, 2013.
The appeals were filed by the Action Congress of Nigeria and the Peoples Democratic Party and their candidates in the October 20, 2012 election.
However, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mariam Aloma Mukhtar, has rescheduled the hearing date from September 24 to August 27.
A statement released on Sunday by the media aide to the CJN, Mr. Ahuraka Isah, explained that the CJN rescheduled the hearing date "following protests from some quarters that September 24 will be outside the mandatory 60 days to determine election petition appeals."
"Ordinarily, the Supreme Court does not sit on appeals while on vacation," the statement added.
It would be recalled that Court of Appeal sitting in Akure had on July 1, 2013 dismissed the petitions filed against Mimiko's election by governorship candidate of the ACN, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu and that of the PDP, Olusola Oke.
The Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Akure had earlier upheld Mimiko's election, following which the petitioners appealed to the Court of Appeal in Akure.
The appellate court subsequently affirmed Mimiko, who contested the governorship election on the platform the Labour Party as the winner of the poll.
Punch
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