THE APRIL 14TH GROUP, ABUJA CHAPTER  

RE: AGBASO IS CHASING SHADOWS

Ordinarily we would have elected not to respond to the ranting of a drowning man who is clearly hanging on to “Douglas House” as Governor of Imo State on borrowed time.

However, each time he deploys one of those several faceless groups he has contracted over time – Imo Collective, Imo Professionals, and most recently Good Governance Forum to execute his hatchet media war against our search for truth and justice it becomes clearly imperative that we step forward and set the records straight.

Yesterday (Monday, February 2, 2009) the so called Good Governance Forum speaking through a certain Dr. Hansen Madumere who of course exists only in the imagination of the man the “PAYMASTER” stepped forward to pour vituperations on Chief Agbaso following their failed attempt to stand truth on its head.

One clear fact is that truth is immutable and one of such truths that came out of the Ruling by the Appeal Court sitting in Abuja (Thursday, February 26, 2009) on the preliminary objection on grounds of lack of jurisdiction raised by INEC / INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Imo State (1 st and 2 nd Respondent), Senator Ifeanyi Ararume (3 rd Respondent) and Sir Ikedi Ohakim (4 th Respondent) is that:

“…While there is a pending case in Court on the legality of

Cancellation of the election of 14 th April 2007 is it competent for the

1 st and 2 nd Respondents to ignore the case and proceed to conduct

another election? I do not think so.

In the instant case since the cancellation of the said election of

14 th April 2007 and the rescheduled election for 28 th April 2007 are in

dispute, it is therefore not appropriate for the 1 st and 2 nd Respondents

to proceed and reschedule another election. They ought to have

waited for the outcome of Appeal in this Court”.

Justice Bada further noted that:

“Furthermore, the mere fact that the appellant participated in the

rescheduled election held on 28 th April 2007 cannot erode the Jurisdiction

of this court to entertain the appeal.

The purported election held on 28 th April 2007 by the 1 st and 2 nd Respondents

in Imo State was in disregard of the pending Judicial Review Proceedings”

We know that it will be very hard for the impostor to accept this immutable truth and which is that by the unanimous decision of the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Thursday, February 26, 2009 the “purported” election which INEC and its agents held on April 28, 2007 and which Sir Ikedi Ohakim “now waves” as a basis for becoming the occupant of “Douglas House” is a “nullity” pure and simple! It could not have happened and just never happened! That is what the law says!

What is now clear is that Sir Ikedi Ohakim is simply speaking, the product of the illegality perpetrated by INEC and its agents and accordingly an illegal Governor!

This is the first leg of our matter. The second leg of the matter is: Does INEC have the statutory powers it exercised on April 15, 2007 when its Resident Electoral Commissioner in Imo State cancelled the April 14, 2007 Governorship elections?

According to Justice Bada:

“In the instant appeal under consideration, the live issue as to whether

the 1 st and 2 nd Respondents have the statutory power to cancel the

Imo State Gubernatorial election held on 14 th April 2007 despite upholding

and validating that of the State House of Assembly held simultaneously

with the same materials at the same venue, time and by the same officials

is still pending and remained a proper subject of determination by this

Court”

This is the real McCoy, and from March 23, 2009 when the Court proceedings on this leg of the matter will commence it shall be very interesting to see which law(s) of Nigeria INEC will advance that it relied on to cancel / annul an election Chief Martin Agbaso had clearly won.

Rather than continuously deploy the Imo tax payers money to fight a battle he knows he has lost, one would have thought that the appropriate thing for Sir Ikedi Ohakim to do is, to commence a very serious soul searching and indeed begin the process of getting ready to hand over the reins of Government to whomsoever the Courts adjudicate as being the rightful Governor.

For a man who really didn’t plan to be Governor and was not prepared for the challenges that come with governance he should be eternally grateful to God for the illegality perpetrated by INEC which he benefitted from, for this nearly two years.

As a “guy”, it is clear to us that his natural instinct which will be head to the Supreme Court with the clear objective of buying time. This instinct will be given impetus by the advice of the array of the SAN’s in his legal team and all those “charlatans” that “romance” with any government in power (AGIP) and feed fat from his illegal administration. He may well go to the Supreme Court there and we will do well to patiently wait for him, because after Supreme Court he must come back to the Court of Appeal! After waiting to get this far for nearly two years, we have gotten used to the idea of waiting. We also know that after the Court of Appeal has given its judgement on the “real McCoy”, he will yet again head back to the Supreme Court where the “Nunc Dimitis” of is illegal administration will be finally sang.

The interesting aspect of the whole scenario as it plays out however, is that since you did not conduct nor cancel the election, your team of SAN’s will have little or no contributions to make in the ensuing argument. The question will be put to INEC and its agent in Imo State! Perhaps they could be doing research for INEC’s lawyers.

One thing that baffles some of us is whether all these shameless hack writers who sing his praise to high heavens and salute his “vision” come from the moon. Otherwise with all his visioning, what has he achieved for Imo State? A cursory look at the high points of his score card will convince every discerning observer that:

Enough for the day.

Elvis Eruba

Co-ordinator

 

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