ELECTION PETITIONS: Appeal Court Transfers Cases To Abuja, LagosAs APC, PDP, LP protest interference
Cases in 19 Northern states taken to FCT, appeals in 17 Southern states moved to Lagos In a bid to curtail political interference in the dispensation of justice, the president of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, has transferred all election petition cases pending before the court in the 36 states to Abuja and Lagos divisions of the appellate court. Consequently, all appellate cases arising from the judgement of the various election petition tribunals in the 36 states of the country would be heard and determined in Abuja and Lagos divisions of the Appeal Court. By this action of Dongban-Mensem, only two of the 20 divisions of the court would determine all appellate cases arising from the judgements of the elections petition tribunals throughout the country. The order affects gubernatorial, national and state assemblies’ elections, which have the court of appeal as the last court of adjudication. One of our impeccable sources in the Court of Appeal headqua