According to the notice released by Zainab Garba from the office of the Supreme Court registrar, the Justices are Musa Dattijo Muhammad, Uwani Musa Abba Aji, Lawal Garba, Helen Ogunwumiju, Mohammed Saulawa, Tijani Abubakar, and Emmanuel Agim.
However, Pointblanknews.com gathered that Justice Dattijo is retiring on Friday, October 27, 2023 while Justices Saulawa and Ogunwunmijo may have have opted out of the panel for some undisclosed but obvious reasons.
Justice Helen Ogunwumiju, the only female on the Supreme Court Panel, may have recused herself from hearing the appeals because her two sons, Otunba Ogunwumiju is APC member in the Ondo State House Assembly and Taiwo Ogunwumiju, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), is an APC counsel at the tribunals.
Justice Musa Dattijo Mohammed will retire October 27, 2023, four days after the inauguration of the panel, when he will clock the statutory age of 70.
Already, three other Justices of the Supreme Court – Chief Justice of Nigeria Olukayode Ariwo-Ola, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun and Inyang-Okoro – have been recused because of conflicts of interests.
With this development in which five out of 11 Justices are recused, the remaining six cannot be constituted because the minimum number constitutionally required to hear petition appeals at the Supreme Court is seven.
If this development occurs, what will be the fate and outcome of the appeal within the time stipulated by law for hearing and judgement/conclusion of election petitions?
The Supreme Court will be facing an uphill task of securing a unanimous judgement of the seven Justices required by law to adjudicate presidential petition appeal.
A call across to Abuja by the Pointblanknews.com confirmed the unfolding development at the Supreme Court, but added “let’s wait and see what happens on Monday”.