Many commentators, especially legal experts have continued to air their views regarding some of the judgments delivered by both the Houses of Assembly/National Assembly Tribunal and the Governorship Tribunal that sat in Umuahia recently.
It is normal for people, both experts and laymen to try to scrutinize election Tribunal judgments because they have a lot to do with our democracy and leadership which centre on ensuring the well being of the people.
One is always careful in commenting on such a sensitive issue to avoid being accused of partisanship, however, when one takes into consideration some of the events that took place before and during the elections in Abia, and subsequent events that played out during proceedings at the election Tribunals coupled with the reactions of majority of Abia voters, then it would not be out of p lace for a concerned citizen to comment.
It would be recalled that while the Governorship case was pending at the Guber Tribunal, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and her candidate Alex Otti who were challenging the victory of the Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate Okezie Ikpeazu, filed a motion to inspect the materials used in one of the contentious LGAs of Obingwa, their request was granted by the Tribunal, and after series of delay and frustration by INEC they agreed to grant APGA legal team and forensic experts access to the materials, unfortunately this legitimate order was flouted as thugs suspected to be working for the PDP assaulted the APGA legal team, and prevented them from assessing those sensitive materials needed.
This development no doubt frustrated APGA as they were forced to return to the Tribunal to seek another order compelling INEC to bring the materials to the Tribunal premises for inspection, unfortunately, less than twenty four hours before this order would be carried out, some arsonists also suspected to be supporters of the ruling party (PDP) stormed the INEC office in broad day light and set the place ablaze.
APGA and her candidate were left with the option of requesting for materials of the other LGAs which were later brought for inspection after PDP and some INEC staff were said to have connived and mixed up the materials to frustrate the inspection.
Having suffered avoidable delays as a result of INEC and PDPs unwillingness to obey the orders of the Tribunal on time, APGA and her candidate prayed for time extension to bring more witnesses, which observers believed would be the material contents of the forensic examination, but shockingly, and suspiciously this motion was turned down by the Tribunal under the pretence that the parties were granted seven days each to present their witnesses, and that having exhausted theirs, APGA would not be given additional time.
The Tribunal took such a terrible decision without first of all considering that by the provisions of the electoral act, each of the parties was entitled to fourteen days for presentation of witnesses, and that the seven days given was because the Tribunal claimed it was running out of time.
Again, the Tribunal denied the extension of time without recourse to the delay tactics applied by INEC and the defense team who were never punished for their disobedience and lack of diligence.
The Tribunal did not also reason that the petitioner’s legal team was given only seven days to face the three joined parties of Okezie Ikpeazu, PDP, and INEC who were allocated separate number of days during the presentation of witnesses.
Surprisingly, the Tribunal that claimed it was running out of time added extra four days to the date earlier agreed for adoption of written addresses, claiming that Abia judiciary wanted to use the Tribunal complex for a certain activities that ought not to have interfered with the Tribunal time table; this time around the Guber Tribunal wasn’t running out of time again, the same Tribunal that denied APGA time extension.
To climax what could be described as an absurdity of legal proceedings, the Tribunal repeatedly used the word “re-run” against APGA while delivering it’s judgement, when it was obvious that no re-run took place in Abia.
The Tribunal in the most bizarre manner refused to align with APGA and her candidate in the case of Osisoma LGA where it was proven beyond reasonable doubt that the PDP L.G Collation agent and their House of Assembly candidate signed the results of the entire Ten Wards of the LGA instead of the Ward collation Agent as prescribed by the electoral act, the Tribunal did not just give their blessing on the grievous electoral crime, but also accepted the lies of the LGA and ward collation agents of PDP who were caught red handed lying under oath.
The over eighty thousand votes fraudulently allocated to PDP and her candidate is one result that should alarm any unbiased mind even without going through the details of the election considering the pattern of voting and election results in the last election across the country, let alone the LGA in question, Obingwa LGA.
As expected during the Tribunal proceedings, the result from Obingwa was exposed to the world as fake when a staff of INEC from Abuja appeared before the Tribunal and tendered a gazzetted INEC document in evidence which clearly contradicted and indicted the result earlier declared.
Unfortunately the same Tribunal that accepted and never disputed the content of the document ignored its undisputed facts while delivering its judgment.
In the case of Chief NnamdiIro Orji, the APGA candidate for Arochukwu/Ohafia constituency, the National Assembly Tribunal shocked everyone when it rejected the pink copies of the election results tendered by APGA showing the original results as earlier given by the INEC presiding officers before the fraudulaent results were announced by Senior INEC Officers in the State.
Again, in one of the INEC result sheets that bore a report written by the INEC Officer in charge, it clearly listed details of votes as scored by the individual political parties and clearly showed that APGA won in all the polling units of the areas in question. The INEC staff also detailed how some agents of the PDP came and snatched the result sheets, and subsequently entered fraudulently figures which contradicted the genuine results, as the scores in figure differed in words. She subsequently used asterisk to differentiate the fake result from the original, unfortunately, the Tribunal used her discretion in the most unfair manner to accept the ones marked as fake.
In another interesting case involving the APGA candidate for Aba North State Constituency in the Abia House of Assembly, the Tribunal said that it established a case of certificate forgery against the Aba candidate and thus nullified his election, ordered for fresh elections in some polling units, and subsequently barred APGA from taking part in the would be rerun election.
However, in what looked like a selective justice and bizarre contradiction, the same Tribunal established a case of double registration and forgery against the PDP candidate for Bende North State Constituency, but did not nullify his election on that basis, rather recommended him for trial in a regular court? Two pre-election election matters, two parties but different judgments.
There are other clear examples of miscarriage of justice involving the lower Tribunals that sat in Umuahia which cannot be listed here for want of space.
One is no trying to play the innocent here or cast aspersion on the judiciarybecause of avoidable inactions of some judicial officers, but some of these judgment are not only conspicuously questionable but clearly suggest that there was a huge compromise taken to the point of ridicule.
The appropriate authorities and institutions charged with the responsibility of ensuring justice and sanity in situations like this need to urgently look into what transpired in Abia so that a very dangerous precedent would not be set at the expense of the suffering masses.
Injustice any where is a threat to justice everywhere-Martin Luther King Jnr.
The author, Ekeoma is a social commentator
He writes from Abia state, Nigeria.
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