Date Published: 11/12/09

MY PROPHESY ABOUT THE IKEDI OHAKIM AND MARTIN AGBASO ELECTORAL COURT DISPUTE By Kenneth Uwadi

The rhythm of the song has not changed, the drumbeat remains the same, the drummers are still the old hands, and the dancers have never changed a little bit. This explains Martin Agbaso’s approach to his wishful thinking over Governor Ikedi Ohakim’s seat; of course, the array of sycophancy exhibited by his legion of solicited  followers doesn't differ from what we already know. For the Mike Nwachukwus, the Nwahiris, the Maximus Ubas and other political turn coats in Imo state, their campaign for Martin Agbaso is quite understandable, that is a hand that fed them in the past and they wouldn't want to bite it, and indeed, as opportunity scavengers, those are people whose considerations for selfish interest surpass the love for their State. In fact they can sell their conscience for material gains, not just from Martin Agbaso, but from any government, we brand them, Any Government In Power. 

what is the issue at stake?After the April 28, 2007 governorship elections that brought in Chief Ikedi Ohakim as governor of Imo State, he had to contend with over 18 court cases challenging his election.And one by one, Ohakim has emerged victorious in all the cases One man has refuse to give up;Chief Martin Agbaso of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) .Paid writers and failed politicians from Imo state are busy disturbing our ear drums about how Agbaso is going to unseat Ohakim in the court.This unmitigated bias against one man (Ohakim)and his government by very few persons is becoming too funny.  It is irresponsible for these people to make themselves an instrument for blackmail and cheap propaganda.  They show shameful display of little – mindedness and a portrayal of a mindset that is bogged down by mischief.  The entire thing rankles and the recklessness has left many wondering where fairness lies in all this.   

The attempt at bringing the courageous efforts of our courts to disrepute due to the nagging pressure of Martin Agbaso to be governor would only consume Agbaso politically. This determination to have his ambition gratified by the court is becoming unbearably embarrassing. An ambition becomes inordinate when, against the grain of reason, a case that has suffered several nullifications, sometimes with outright reprimands from esteemed Judges is still being pursued with so much vigour.  One begins to wonder what manner of service the applicant would offer the state if he derives his mandate from a corrupted process.

Agbaso had, after the April 14, 2007 governorship elections in Imo State, gone to court to challenge the cancellation of that election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).  The case was yet to be decided when another election was scheduled for April 28, 2007.  Agbaso, regardless of the claims he was making about the April 14 elections, the basis on which he went to court, still went ahead and contested for the April 28 elections.  He lost.  Curiously, one of the arguments being advanced in favour of Agbaso by his cohorts is that INEC should not have gone ahead to schedule another election when the first one was already a matter of litigation in the courts.   If this argument is to be sustained, we must then proceed to ask: why did Agbaso participate in the second election if he believed so much in the  first?  If the rescheduling of a second election by INEC was wrong, was Agbaso right to have taken part in the wrong exercise?  Indeed, would he have continued with the case he filed in court over the April 14 elections if he had won the April 28 elections?  He certainly would not have continued.  He would have treated the matter he took to court as if it never was. 

It became convenient for Agbaso to begin to insist on April 14 because April 28 turned out to be a disastrous appearance for him.  This is a clear case of double standard.  In fact, it is indicative of a complete absence of any abiding standard in the politics and pursuits of a man who aspires to rule over a people.  Today, there is a cacophony over April 14 because April 28 failed him.  This hoopla is a tyrannical assault on the sense and sensibility of the people who Agbaso aspires to govern.  By so doing, people are being made slaves of Agbaso’s mania and phobia.  This is the perilous siege that is being foisted on the people of Imo State in particular and Nigerians in general. 

Agbaso, the man laying claim to April 14 in a conventional court, had earlier gone to the tribunal in Owerri and the Appeal court in Port Harcourt where he made cases for and against the April 14 and 28 elections.  He probably was on a mission to confuse both issues.  But the tribunal and the court of Appeal called him to order.  In fact, the issues Agbaso is raising now in Abuja courts had been determined by both the Election Petition Tribunal in Owerri and the Appeal Court in Port Harcourt .  It was the court of Appeal in Port Harcourt that made Agbaso to know that his claim to April 14 cannot stand.  One of the five-man panel of Judges in the ruling said:  “It is obvious that no votes were cast nor counted. The only conclusion is that the election that took place was inconclusive.  Any grievance based on the said election is injusticeable”.   This was the ruling of the Appeal Court in Port Harcourt .  Now, can any other court begin to adjudicate on an issue that has been so conclusively determined by a Court of Appeal?  Certainly not.  Agbaso and his cohorts will soon be told this inescapable truth.   

Agbaso himself cannot offer Ndi-Imo  any acceptable reason(s) for eyeing the Imo Government House so badly, except that he   see Imo  State Government house  as an aspect of his  patrimonial inheritance and  probably feels empty without the title, Governor and has since been involved in a dangerous legal battle believing that he will  throw Imo State into a very big mess.I will shout it loud now  as I have always been saying,let those that have ears hear:Ikedi Ohakim will win all electoral court dispute,Martin Agbaso’s case inclusive and Ohakim will go on to beat everybody for the 2011 Imo Guber election and rule Imo State till year  2015 for God is on his side. 

Leaders like Ohakim should be encouraged. I read recently an interview granted by Dr. Samfo Nwankwo (Owuru) in the African Herald Express of October 30,2009.Dr Samfo Nwankwo is the national President, Orlu Political Consultative Assembly (OPOCA) as well as the President, National Union of True Igbo Movement (NUTIM). Known for his outspoken posture against unpopular governments in Imo State. In the encounter with Greg Mensah of African Herald Express,Sanfo Nwankwo was asked his  general assessment of the Ikedi Ohakim  administration.He made the following comment

‘ This regime has done extremely well, irrespective of the distractions it had suffered here and there.  The governor has remained focused and has been able to deliver democratic dividends to the generality of Imo people and I think that Imo people have never had it so good.  Apart from during the Mbakwe's regime, this is one governor or government in Imo State that has really embraced the generality of the Imo people. There are lots of things, lots of innovations this governor or this government has brought forward which if you go to other states you hardly find them.  If you come to Imo State, first of all you see a state that is very well focused; you see a state that has a destination; knows where she is going. You see a state that is clean; a state that its infrastructure is something that you will emulate. That is why you find some states come to Imo State to copy most of the good things governor Ikedi Ohakim is doing in the State.  So I can rate Imo as a state that has focus and is in a hurry to develop and a state that knows where she is going to and a state that has, less than three years, given a very good account of the mandate that the Imo people gave to that government.  So, I will say so far, Gov. Ikedi Ohakim in Imo State has done exceedingly well.’ 

-Kenneth Uwadi writes from Mmahu –Egbema ,Imo State.