Senator T.A Orji as governor in 2007 used ample time of his four-year tenure in the courts till he got justice. Assuming that it was over and settle for real governance, criminals emerged from everywhere and made Aba the Somalia of Nigeria. At a point, kidnapping and dare devil armed robbery happened on hourly basis, making scintillating reading. Nobody was exempted. Clergy and laity were targets, people were frightened into dumping their posh cars for tricycles, and some almost went on sack cloths to disguise their wealth. Children, one of the most vulnerable groups in society became pawns and visitors, traditionally assumed untouchables in Igbo Land were abducted just to embarrass the government led by T.A Orji. Remember the school children in Ossisioma, Aba and the journalists, members of Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ, returning from a conference in a neighboring state were such targets used to arouse negative consciousness.
At the height of this, the plotters sponsored articles and news commentaries not excluding bloggers, urging President Jonathan to impose a state of emergency in Abia with the aim of dislodging the governor. To make a long story short, like in a short story that will always hit the climax and end abruptly, all these fizzled out and Chief T.A Orji rested and won a landslide second tenure.
The events illustrated above have rejuvenated in another form via a judicial coup with apologies to Mike Ozekhome, SAN and a forthright lawyer.
Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, merely one year in office amid quantum innovations and people oriented-deliveries went the whole hog of court trials terminating at the Supreme Court. While he heaved a sigh of relief, unwary of more divisive plots, saw the carpet aggressively pulled under his feet. The second Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, primary contender from Abia north senatorial district, Dr Uchechukwu Ogah, obtained a quick judgment from an Abuja court with so many mind-boggling interpretations. A situation where forgery was alleged, some questions ring loud enough. Who investigated the forgery? Were the tax books of Abia scrutinized? Was the police or forensic experts involved to screen the papers? Were there irregular signatures or oddly numbered receipts?
All these questions were not answered and whoa, forgery was pronounced.
A few days after, precisely 48 hours after the horrendous pronouncement from the court, INEC the all-powerful electoral body which was established before 1960 and carried out one of the first indigenous elections in 1959 that rendered the independence officers that should be highly aware of the fact that electoral court matters in Nigeria hardly end at the first court, railroaded a certificate of return issuance to Chief Uche Ogah and the withdrawal of the one validly issued to a sitting Gov. Dr. Ikpeazu.
INEC curiously denied receiving a notice of appeal and stay of execution but later agreed that they received one but did not see the other. They equally and shamelessly argued that the one received and stamped by one Saleh Ibrahim of the legal department was submitted in the wrong department. In a decision to withdraw and issue certificates of return, shouldn’t absolute care be taken? Is this not an unforgivable performance and embarrassment to the INEC Chairman? There are certainly more to these than the eye can see.
A lot of interpretations have been flying up and down, and many people taking varying positions most of these impartial based or solid legal interpretations, others have taken sides to protect their unabashed selfish interests. A certain verbose and bombastic columnist in the Sun stable who doesn’t see anything good in Abia has written on Monday, abusing the former Governor, Senator T A Orji, obviously reinforcing his old stance of hatred, but let it be known that our actions will one day come back to haunt us all. It is said that history will vindicate the just.
The judiciary is supposed to be the last defence line for the common person where it is believed through the principles of the rule of law that all are equal in the eyes of the law. What we see today is like the animal farm, some are more equal especially those with bags of money.
If bad precedents are accepted, it goes into the body of laws, becoming unwritten constitution that would be cited may times over and would be employed to subvert the unsuspecting and doubly emboldening, swarming itching palms.
This is a threat to democracy, the will of the majority. We may be unwittingly encouraging people to avoid electioneering campaigns which involves meeting the people and allowing the electorate an opportunity to evaluate the candidates and make their choices based on their manifests. The shortcuts of a single person in the name of judge subverting the decision of millions of the electorates in one fell swoop portends a Frankenstein situation.
Let’s be wary because monstrous seeds sown today will obviously grow into branches that will destroy us in stormy times like this.
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