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Supreme Court · 2007
Must the constitutional procedure for removing a Governor be followed exactly, and can a court review whether it was?
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This decision is reported in the Nigerian law reports. Locate it by its case name in a law report series or through the court's own record, and read the judgment before relying on it.
The question the court actually had to answer. Everything a judgment settles flows from this, and nothing beyond it does.
Must the constitutional procedure for removing a Governor be followed exactly, and can a court review whether it was?
A purported removal of a state Governor was carried out by a group of members of the state House of Assembly.
The process departed from the procedure and the numbers the Constitution prescribes.
The Supreme Court held the purported removal invalid.
The constitutional procedure — including the required proportions and the steps the Constitution sets out — is mandatory, and a court may determine whether it was complied with.
Stated narrowly, as the case is genuinely cited for — not stretched into the broader proposition it is often summarised as.
Removal of a Governor is valid only where the Constitution's procedure is strictly followed, and compliance is justiciable.
Our explanation of what the decision means for an ordinary reader. It is not the judgment.
Impeachment is not a political free-for-all. The Constitution sets out the steps and the numbers, and skipping them does not produce a removal — it produces nothing.
The decision also confirms that courts will look at whether the process was followed, even though the merits of the political judgment are for the legislature.
The part most summaries leave out, and the part that most often causes a case to be cited for something it never decided.
Named generally. Read the official text of any instrument you intend to rely on.
This decision is reported in the Nigerian law reports. Locate it by its case name in a law report series or through the court's own record, and read the judgment before relying on it.
Subject area: The Constitution