Date Published: 01/14/10

Acting President: Court defers ruling

A Federal High Court in Abuja Thursday deferred judgment till January 22 in two of three cases brought by lawyers to force President Umaru Yar'Adua to install Vice President Goodluck Jonathan as acting president until the ailing president returns from hospital in Saudi Arabia.

The court, headed by Daniel Abutu, had ruled on Wednesday that Mr. Jonathan has enough powers to carry out the president's functions in his absence, but that he could not become acting president.

There are three separate legal challenges in the same court to force Mr. Yar'Adua to swear in Jonathan as acting president with full powers. The cases are brought by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), human rights lawyer Femi Falana, and former lawmaker, Farouk Adamu Aliyu.

The NBA case was deferred to Thursday next week because the lawyers need time to prepare a response to arguments presented by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Michael Aondoakaa.

Mr. Falana's case could not be heard after the lawyer dismissed Wednesday's court ruling as "meaningless", and demanded that Mr. Abutu, who made that ruling, recuse himself from the current case. The shocked judge, who is the chief judge of the federation, agreed and transferred the case to Justice Adamu Bello.

"There was a judgment delivered in this case yesterday in which the chief justice made very profound, definitive pronuncement on the reliefs I am seeking in court," Mr. Falana told reporters outside the courtroom. "I, therefore, felt that I needed to have another judicial opinion."

The ruling "has not addressed the vacuum on the ground," Mr. Falana said.