The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by ex-governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa, seeking reinstatement to complete his tenure of office.
Nyako was on July 15, 2014, impeached as governor of the state after spending three of the four years in office.
Delivering the judgment, Justice Tanko Muhammad led the seven-man panel to hold that the appeal was lacking in merit.
“This court agrees with the earlier decision of the Court of Appeal that declared Nyako’s removal from office as illegal.
“We also hold onto the decision of the lower court that fails to reinstate the appellant because of the special facts of the case,’’ he said.
Muhammad said the appeal had to fail because Nyako’s counsel compromised the case at the lower court when he withdrew the prayer seeking the ex-governor’s reinstatement.
“There could be no ground of appeal when a litigant’s case was compromised by his or her counsel and on that score alone the appeal has to fail.
“However, the remedy by the appeal of court ordering the payment of salaries and other entitlements accruable to the appellant for the period he was illegally removed from office, was in order,’’ he said.
“There will never be a forum again where that issue of reinstatement would be raised again, and to that extent, that informs my dismissal of the appeal in its entirety,’’ Muhammad held.
