Also reacting, Falana faulted the court’s ruling, insisting that a judge lacks the power to overturn his or her own final decision.
Falana maintained that once a court has delivered a judgment or made a final order, the judge becomes functus officio. This legal doctrine bars a court from revisiting or reversing its own final determination except in limited circumstances provided by law.
According to him, any party dissatisfied with such a judgment ought to challenge it before a higher court rather than asking the same judge to reverse his own decision.
The senior lawyer also argued that all actions taken pursuant to the earlier judgment remain legally valid and cannot be invalidated retrospectively by the same court.
He specifically maintained that the primary elections conducted by the NDC under the authority of the earlier judgment cannot, in law, be set aside through the subsequent ruling.
“All the actions taken pursuant to the earlier order of the judge are deemed proper in law. The court cannot retrospectively set aside the primary elections of the NDC,” he added.
Falana also expressed concern about what he described as a disturbing trend within the Federal High Court, alleging that certain judicial decisions threaten Nigeria’s multi-party democratic system.
He alleged that some judges of the Federal High Court were taking actions that could reduce Nigeria to a one-party state by facilitating the deregistration of opposition political parties. At the same time, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) remained unaffected.
Peterside Recommends Sanctions against Judicial Rascality
Meanwhile, investment banker and economist Peterside has said that judicial rascality can be stopped not just by relying on appeal courts to overturn “obnoxious judgements” but also through disciplinary action.
The banker’s statement was in response to Senator Sola Akinyede’s X post about the Federal High Court’s ruling on the NDC’s deregistration.
“Sad. Judicial systems are not sustained by the corrective powers of their appellate system, but by judicial decency & integrity. Until the CJN enforces these qualities, the Nigerian Judiciary will continue on its journey of self-destruction, igniting the truncation of our democracy,” Akinyede, a former Ekiti South lawmaker, had written.
In his reaction, Peterside, founder of Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, applauded Akinyede, saying, “Well said @SolaA63524. The cure for Judicial Rascality is disciplinary action. Glossing over rascality whilst relying on Appeal Courts alone to overturn obnoxious judgements encourages more judges to go into the lucrative business of delivering procurable obnoxious judgments.”
