Govs' tenure: Supreme Court hears INEC appeal today

There are strong indications that the Supreme Court will on Tuesday (today) decide whether or not the tenure of Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State, where the April 2011 governorship election did not hold, has expired.Four other governors, whose tenures will be affected by any decision of the Supreme Court, are Governor Alhaji Ibrahim Idris of Kogi State, Governor Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State, Governor Timipre Sylva of Bayelsa State and Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River State, all of whom had remained in their respective offices following an Appeal Court judgement that their tenures would end in 2012.To help it resolve the matter, the Supreme Court has extended invitation to three legal luminariesa former Attorney-General of the Federation, Chief Richard Akinjide, SAN; foremost constitutional lawyers, Chief G. O. K Ajayi, SAN; and Prof. Itse Sagay, as amicus curia (friends of the court).They are to appear before the court today, and address it on the appeal filed by the Independent National Electoral Commission, against the appellate courts decision.The three lawyers were on Monday told to serve their briefs of arguments to the parties in the appealappellants Brig. Gen. Mohammed Buba Marwa and the Congress for Progressive Change, and respondents, Nyako, the PDP, and INEC.Hearing in the matter was expected to commence on Monday before a Supreme Court panel headed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Dahiru Musdapher, but just as the court was about calling on the amicus curia, counsel to Kogi State Governor, Idris, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, informed the court that they had yet to be served with the briefs of the amicus curia.He told the court that, in the interest of justice, he needed to know the direction in which the amicus curia were advising the court.Counsel for Bayelsa State Governor, Sylva, Chief Ladi Williams, SAN, also toed the same line, informing the court that he had not been served with the briefs of the amicus curia and that he had a motion on notice challenging the locus of the appellant.
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