INEC Chairman , Prof. Attahiru Jega
Against the backdrop of cases arising from party primaries, FRIDAY OLOKOR examines fears of stakeholders and warns that litigation is a threat to the forthcoming elections.
If there is any legacy, which the present political dispensation has enjoyed most, it is the implicit faith in the judiciary. The judiciary, from recent developments, especially the 2007 general elections, has proved to be a potent force to be reckoned with in the nation’s politics. Although the judiciary was said have corrected many of the injustices during the elections, which were described by international observers as the worst in Nigeria’s political history, the sins of the then Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Maurice Iwu, during the elections, will forever remain.
As the nation marches to another general election, politicians are at it again. The courts have of recent been inundated with cases arising from the primaries. Analysts have, however, warned that unless stringent steps are taken, litigation could be an obstacle to forthcoming elections. From Kogi, Enugu, Imo to Oyo, Ogun, Kano and Yobe states, it is the same story.
Only recently, Justice Abdul Kafarati of a Federal High Court in Abuja stopped the Peoples Democratic Party from conducting another primary election into the Kogi Central Senatorial District. He gave the order following a motion ex parte by the Special Adviser to the Speaker of the House of Representatives (Political Matters), Mr. Nurudeen Abatemi-Usman, against the PDP and INEC.
In the PDP primary election for Kogi Central Senatorial District, the plaintiff was said to have defeated an incumbent senator, a local government chairman and eight others.
The plaintiff had, in the suit by his lawyer, Mr. Patrick Ikwueto (SAN), proceeded to court seeking, “an order of interim injunction restraining the defendants and their agents from conducting, organising or monitoring/supervising the holding of another senatorial primary election for Kogi Central Senatorial district, pending the determination of the motion on notice.”
Luck smiled on Usman when he was declared by Kafarati as the legitimate winner of the PDP Kogi Central Senatorial primary election. The judge held that there were concrete evidence that the Kogi Central Senatorial primaries took place and was conclusive.
Also in Kogi State, a Federal High Court in Abuja has stated that the PDP may not have a governorship candidate for the April 5 election, unless it reverses the earlier order for a rerun primary election. The PDP had submitted the name of a former Executive Director of Afribank Plc, Mr. Jibrin Isah, as its governorship candidate. In a motion ex parte, a runner-up in the cancelled election, Mr. Abdulrasak Kutepa, sought an order to stop Isah’s nomination. Justice Gabriel Kolawole summoned INEC to come and show within 72 hours, why the reliefs sought by Kutepa should not be granted, while ordering the plaintiff to serve the court processes on the PDP and INEC who are co-defendants in the matter.
Kutepa had in his exparte application prayed for an order restraining PDP from nominating Isah as its governorship candidate in the state for the April election, arguing that the primary election which produced him had been nullified by the Appeal Panel of the party, that reviewed the primary election conducted on January 9.
Justice Kolawole had noted in the earlier part of his ruling that Kutepa approached the court because the rerun election ordered by the party did not hold on January 25 as scheduled.
In Ogun State, Justice Kafarati also restrained INEC and the PDP from accepting the list of candidates sent by the dissolved Ogun State Executive Committee led by Chief Joju Fadairo.
This order was sequel to an ex parte application by Chief Adetunji Olurin, Babatunde Fadun, Tunde Oladunjoye, Mr. Dave Salako, Mr. Wale Solaja and Seun Adesanya.
The motion was supported by a 53- paragraph affidavit sworn to by Wale Solaja and moved by Mr. O.O. Fakunle (SAN).
The judge ordered thus: “That the first (INEC) and second (PDP) respondents are restrained from accepting, compiling, announcing, using, validating or otherwise acting upon the results of the primaries/congresses conducted in Ogun State pending the hearing of the originating summons.
In Kano State, a son of late Gen. Sani Abacha, Mohammed, is at the Federal High Court in Abuja where he is praying the court to declare him winner of the Congress for Progressive Change governorship primary in the state.
In an originating summons filed by his lawyer, Mr. Abdullahi Haruna, the plaintiff wants the court to declare that INEC should not recognise any other candidate for the said election other than him.
Citing his grounds for the relief, Mohammed stated that he scored the highest member votes of 144,066 in the party’s governorship primaries above the other four candidates, who contested against him.
He joined CPC, INEC, Brig.-Gen. Lawal Isah (retd.), and the party’s chairman, Board of Trustees, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) as Co-defendants in the suit.
Besides, Mohammed asked the court to declare that the failure of CPC to submit his name to INEC as the duly elected candidate of the party for the April polls was a clear breach of the party’s constitution and should therefore, be reversed in the interest of justice and fairplay.
According to him, the primary election conducted on January 12 saw Senator Rufai Hanga scoring 45,618 votes; Dr. Awalu Anwar (30,410) and Mr. Magaji Abdullahi (5,795).
In Yobe State, three chieftains of the PDP: Ali Danladi, Mohammed A. Mohammed and Mohammed Bako have also gone to court to seek an order restraining the party from submitting the name of Usman Al-Bashir to INEC, as the governorship candidate of the PDP because he still has a case to answer in the Supreme court.
The plaintiffs have asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to enforce the judgment of the Supreme Court delivered by Justice Muhammadu Uwais which indicted Usman Al-Bashir of fraud alongside his companies in the receivership of West African Breweries Ltd.
In the South-East, the political temperature has shifted to Imo State West Senatorial District where Justice Kafarati had nullified the selection of Chief Hope Uzodinma as the winner of the PDP primaries.
The court premised its order on the grounds that he had been disqualified by the party’s screening committee to participate in the election.
Senator Izunaso had through his lawyer, Mr. Patrick Ikwueto (SAN), gone to the court after the PDP primary election for the senatorial district in which he came second to challenge the declaration of Uzodinma as the PDP’s candidate in the elections.
The court said that Izunaso, who scored the highest number of votes among the eligible contestants in the primaries for Imo West Senatorial District was entitled to have his name submitted to INEC for the April National Assembly polls.
But Uzodinma has gone to the Court of Appeal to challenge the decision the lower court. The appellant in a notice of appeal filed by his lawyer, Mr. Paul Erokoro (SAN), is challenging the decision of the FHC on the grounds that it erred in law when it overruled his preliminary objection and assumed jurisdiction on the matter.
According to him, Justice Kafarati erred in law when he held that he (Uzodinma) was not properly cleared to contest the primaries when there was ample evidence before the court that he had been cleared.
He also contended that he was not served with the originating summons in the matter, adding that the jurisdiction of the court was not activated for non-service of the originating summons and that the suit was incompetent for non-compliance with Order 3 Rule of the Federal High Court rules.
A Federal High Court in Abuja also barred the PDP from submitting the name of Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State as its candidate for the forthcoming governorship election pending the determination of a suit challenging his nomination.
Justice Kafarati also granted an interim order restraining INEC from accepting or validating the governor’s name as the PDP flagbearer for the governorship election in Enugu state.
The development was sequel to an ex parte application argued by Mr. Alex Izinyon (SAN), the lawyer to a PDP governorship aspirant in the state, Mr. Anayo Onwegbu, and 38 others.
Justice Kafarati in a separate matter also issued an order restraining the PDP from nominating Clever Ikisikpo as its candidate for the Bayelsa East Senatorial District pending the determination of a suit filed by Senator Amange Nimi-Barigha.
The judge also restrained the PDP in the interim, from submitting any other name other than that of the plaintiff to INEC as its candidate for the Bayelsa East Senatorial District for the National Assembly election.
In Oyo State, Justice Jonathan Shakarho of the Federal High Court in Ibadan nullified the results of the PDP congresses held between December 29 and 31, 2010 and by implication, nullified the primaries, which produced Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala as the PDP governorship candidate. The court ruling was sequel to a motion ex parte filed by three governorship aspirants in the state – Hazeem Gbalorumi, Elder Wole Oyelese and Yekeen Adeojo and 34 others – seeking to restrain the PDP from sending the governor’s name and other candidates to INEC based on the results of the congress.
The plaintiffs had prayed the court to restrain the defendants including INEC, the party, the state party Chairman, Dejo Afolabi and Alao-Akala from organising a party congress.
Expectedly, the flurry of court cases threatening the 2011 elections have continued to elicit comments from the stakeholders including lawyers and leading bureaucrats.
A human rights activists and legal practitioner, Mr. Bamidele Aturu x-rays the situation from two diametrical opposites. To him, it shows very clearly a lack of elite consensus in Nigerian politics.
He said, “That politics is fractious and sectional in turn shows that the accumulation system is largely primitive. An aspect of this primitivism is that the ruling elite depend on the state for survival. There is really no capitalist class. They all are contractors or power peddlers who make a living only from the state. Thus, we see that the process of class formation is either inchoate when compared to the same process in the advanced capitalist nations or, perhaps more accurately, cannot but be stunted since the ruling elite here cannot really develop beyond its present state as it has no ‘foreign country’ to exploit.”
Aturu stated that the dependence on state resources for survival made competition for elective and public offices violent and primitive. He did not spare the leadership of the political parties, who he described as “political barons” and “mafia gangs” demanding allegiance from the members by force. He said, “Barons are not used to following due process. Imposition of spouses and children on parties, which pretend to be public institutions is bound to generate violent and legal conflicts. We should be thankful to God if all we get are just court cases and not more assassinations.”
Also a civil rights activist based in the United States, Mr. Smart Ajaja, said that the failure of leadership is evident in every aspect of the nation’s life, including corrupt judiciary and a legal system which impact negatively on the administration of justice.
He said, “Most judges and lawyers have thrown ethics to the wind in pursuit of inordinate schemes to make money, in this case from politicians who lavish stolen money on them.
“That is why you hear judges granting frivolous injunctions with reckless abandon or delivering bizarre judgments relying on fraudulent legal and judicial technicalities. These bad practices are expensive, despicable and above all, make a mockery of the judiciary and the administration of justice.
Therefore, the Nigerian judiciary and the legal system are in urgent need of a far-reaching reform now than ever before.”
Another lawyer, Dame Carol Ajie, however disagrees with Aturu. She believes that instead of settling electoral dispute through violence, the courts still remain the supreme instrument of peace. She said, rather than have politicians settle grievances with the piercing edge of cutting tools and daggers, the civil method would be the use of statute books and the law courts as embodied in the 1995 Constitution and the Electoral Act of 2010, as amended.
According to her, “It is right that the civil and human rights communities enjoin citizens to follow the law, to apply the constitution and to preserve the integrity of the electoral system.” She, however, adds a caveat: Court processes should not be abused, “As we witnessed recently when an Enugu State High Court judge removed the PDP Chairman, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, from office and the following day, a different state High Court Judge in Anambra, re-instated him.” Judges and lawyers, she warned, must therefore refrain from “self-inflicting opprobrium in order to sustain the respect and dignity this arm of government so deserves, no matter the degree of alluring temptations.”
For the Director, Initiative for Public Analysis, Mr. Thompson Ayodele, the solution to the army of court cases is the implementation of the Justice Muhammadu Uwais-led Electoral Reform Committee which suggested that cases should be disposed of before the inauguration of winners. He said, “That way, endless litigation is curtailed. By and large, the court process ought to be faster in dispensing with electoral matters. Without that, politicians might try to do everything possible to be declared winner when they know they would spend almost their entire tenure for the position after much delay and endless adjournments.”
The President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Joseph Daudu (SAN), had warned that the nation’s legal system could collapse as a result of unnecessary emphasis on election cases”.
At the valedictory court session in honour of a retired justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Ikechi Ogbuagu, Daudu lamented the congestion of cases in the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, which he regretted would be worsened by the pre-election and election cases. As a way forward, Daudu renewed the call for a constitutional court, which was rejected by the National Assembly during the constitution review exercise.
The NBA boss also criticised “excessive reliance on written submissions” by courts, which according to him, “kills advocacy; a stone cold document cannot inspire the kind of persuasion a good advocacy can produce.” He urged the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu, to constitute the Administration of Justice Commission charged with the duty of supervising activities of key institutions of the justice sector.
Source:Punch
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