BARELY 48 hours after the election of Nyesom Wike as governor was
nullified, the Rivers State House of Assembly Election Petition Tribunal
sitting in Abuja yesterday voided the election of the Speaker, Owaji
Ibani and19 of his colleagues in the Rivers State House of Assembly.
The 20 lawmakers were standard bearers of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for April 11, 2015.
Last Saturday, the Justice Ambrosa led Governorship Election Petition
Tribunal had nullified Wike’s election on the account that the election
was fraught with violence and irregularities in areas where they were
held.
The State House of Assembly Election Petition Tribunal also
predicated its decision to void the lawmakers’ election on the same
finding.
It held that the petitioners had satisfied it that the election of the House of Assembly in the state was marred with violence and irregularities and ordered that fresh election is conducted within 90
It held that the petitioners had satisfied it that the election of the House of Assembly in the state was marred with violence and irregularities and ordered that fresh election is conducted within 90
Meanwhile, the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) has summoned an emergency meeting of the party’s national caucus
to discuss what it called an alleged onslaught against the party and its
candidates in the last general elections by the APC-led Federal
Government.
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, in a statement
yesterday said the caucus members, who are to meet on Thursday would
focus on ‘the unrelenting schemes by the APC and its Federal Government
to use some unpatriotic elements in the Judiciary to advance their plot
to take over states won by the PDP, particularly Rivers, Akwa Ibom,
Delta, Taraba and Abia states.’
Meanwhile, Governor Olusegun Mimiko has expressed dissatisfaction
over the judgement of the tribunal, which sacked the Governor of Rivers
State, Nyesom Wike, last weekend, insisting that the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) will still win again.
Mimiko said this in Akure yesterday, noting, however, that, “tribunal
judgment can go either way, but the Rivers own is particularly
embarrassing. We all know the circumstances surrounding the Rivers State
tribunal.”
He stated that for unjustifiable course, the tribunal was not allowed
to sit in the state, revealing that, “somewhere along the line the
chairman of the tribunal was changed. Now we challenge the jurisdiction
of the tribunal and it has gotten to the Supreme Court.”
Also, the Rivers state governor, Nyeesom Wike yesterday described
alleged wish by All Progressives Congress (APC) to unseat him as a
mirage and a flitting illusion.
He spoke as APC dedicated Saturday’s nullification of the state’s
governorship polls by the election petition tribunal to over 100 of its
members allegedly killed during the campaign period
Governor Wike, who spoke through his Special Adviser on Media and
Communications, Opunabo Inko-Tariah, said the verdict by the tribunal
was a fad, and that after savouring the euphoria of the victory with a
short life span, the APC will come to terms with reality.
“The tempest of justice cannot blow fitfully in our tribunals. I have the settled conviction that sagacity shall eventually prevail. The tribunal’s ratio decided surfers from a twin ill of eclipse of reasoning and poverty of logic and shall be subjected to the clinical prognosis of the lab of the Court of Appeal. I advise our teeming supporters not to be distraught and also remain calm. Remember, after thunder, comes rain,” he said.
The governor said the mandate freely given to him by the electorate can never be stolen under any guise. He noted that it is irrefragable that his refreshing initiatives and policy articulations have helped refuel the ethos of good governance within four months that he has been in office. Wike said he remained “the man who stopped APC’s march of conquest, terror and subjugation as I navigated Rivers State through the stormy waters to this point of safety.”
“The tempest of justice cannot blow fitfully in our tribunals. I have the settled conviction that sagacity shall eventually prevail. The tribunal’s ratio decided surfers from a twin ill of eclipse of reasoning and poverty of logic and shall be subjected to the clinical prognosis of the lab of the Court of Appeal. I advise our teeming supporters not to be distraught and also remain calm. Remember, after thunder, comes rain,” he said.
The governor said the mandate freely given to him by the electorate can never be stolen under any guise. He noted that it is irrefragable that his refreshing initiatives and policy articulations have helped refuel the ethos of good governance within four months that he has been in office. Wike said he remained “the man who stopped APC’s march of conquest, terror and subjugation as I navigated Rivers State through the stormy waters to this point of safety.”
The PDP statement said: “The national caucus meeting is in
furtherance of the decision of the leadership of the party to fully
activate its structures in stiff resistance to the manipulations,
coercions and threats of the APC-led government, and in line with the
unbending determination by the party not to, in any way whatsoever
surrender any mandate freely given to it by the people at any level
across the country, no matter the pressure.”
In condemning the judgment of the Akwa Ibom and Rivers states
election tribunals, Metuh alleged “reprehensible steps taken by the APC
government that culminated in the overturn of Rivers State and the Akwa
Ibom State governorship polls, which include:the curious and
controversial relocation of the election tribunals from their states to
Abuja without any justification and the constant juggling of judicial
officers and members of governorship elections tribunal in PDP states,
especially Rivers and Akwa Ibom states among others.
Metuh further alleged: “The bias in the judgment against the PDP in
Rivers as well as Akwa Ibom is evidenced in the contradictions inherent
in the trial process of the two cases and the verdicts therein, whereby
the tribunals clearly disregarded standing legal norm that a petitioner
must establish proof of claims.”
Meanwhile, a group, Governance Watch Initiative (GWI), has expressed
shock Metuh’s statement
on Sunday, urging PDP members and supporters to
action.
In a statement by National Coordinator, Rotimi Ogunwuyi, the group
said: “We are horrified that a party that was until six months ago the
ruling party in our
country, and one that was in control of 27 states
at a certain time could so brazenly
seek to instigate anarchy in the
country simply because a duly constituted tribunal
upturned the
governorship election in Rivers State.
“We have also noticed a series of unwarranted attacks against our
nation’s judiciary by
Chief Metuh and his party, an attack that was
carried to a disturbing level in Sunday’s
statement.
“We recall that when Chibuike Amaechi, then of the PDP, was
pronounced as the Governor
of Rivers State by the Supreme Court in
October 2007, even when he did not contest
that year’s governorship
election since his name had been substituted by his party, the
PDP did
not think the judiciary was being used by the PDP-led Federal Government
of
the time.
“We also recall that under the present dispensation, all the APC
National Assembly candidates
in Rivers, who took their cases to the
election petition tribunal, lost and heavens did not fall.
We note that Chief Metuh has always been quick to say that his party
will provide a credible
opposition, and wonder what is credible in the
kind of subversive statements that have been
emanating from the PDP
spokesman in recent times.
“If indeed Chief Metuh and his party believe in the rule of law, as
they have often trumpeted,
they would have realized that it is better
to appeal any judgment they do not like than to
threaten to bring the
entire country crashing down on everyone.
“What true democrat will resort to self-help to resolve an electoral
dispute when there are clear constitutional channels to resolve such
issues? It is an interesting irony that the same Chief Metuh, who has
been raving at the judiciary, is the one calling, in his statement, on
the Chief Justice of Nigeria to ‘note the looming danger and save the
nation’s democracy and the institution of the judiciary’.
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