MAKING A CASE FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF TIME LIMITATION FOR COURTS’ DETERMINATION OF CASES ARISING FROM IMPEACHMENT IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Impeachment is tool in the hands of the legislature to remove Presidents, Vice Presidents, Governors or Deputy Governors from office for gross misconducts or violation of the Constitution. The power of impeachment became imperative in order to checkmate the excesses of the executives and ensure they uphold the rule of law at all times. Nigeria has witnessed several impeachments of governors and deputy governors, in some of these cases of impeachment the judiciary intervened to nullify the impeachment for being procedurally flawed. This article made a case for the introduction of time limit for courts’ determination of cases arising from impeachment. The research methodology employed in the article is doctrinal research methodology while the sources of data are primary sources from the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999(as amended), case laws, and secondary sources from text books, journal articles and internet materials. The article found that there are some impeachment cases where the court upturned the impeachments on the ground that they were procedurally flawed, however, in some of these cases the embattled officer cannot reclaim the office because his term in office has elapsed before the court’s verdict, therefore, he can only get monetary compensation in form of payment of his entitlements while the people that elected him bears the agony of having their mandate wrongfully terminated prematurely. The article recommended that a maximum time limit of 60 days from the date of filing cases questioning impeachments in court to when judgment should be delivered by the trial court while the Court of Appeal should have maximum of 30 days to hear and determine appeal arising from impeachment cases.