Date Published: 02/09/10

Sokoto People cry for justice as they wait on the Court of Appeal to rule in favour of the masses and return their stolen mandates By Oludare Ogunlana

It is no longer news that the entire electoral process of 2007 was a charade whereby erstwhile President Obasanjo’s “do or die” political dose was imposed on the entire nation through electoral fraud/massive rigging and imposition of candidates. While states like Edo and Ondo were lucky to have received justice over their stolen mandates, the people of Sokoto are still waiting; endlessly crying for justice without any hope in sight. Of course, the good people of Sokoto are still dealing with the bitter pill forcefully given to them to swallow through the imposition of Alhaji Aliyu Magatakarda Wammako - a disgraced former deputy governor under the Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa administration.  “Justice delayed is justice denied”; hence, the people of Sokoto are crying for justice as they wait on the Court of Appeal to rule in their favour and return the mandate stolen from them.

Alhaji Aliyu Wammako was conscripted two weeks before the general election as the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial candidate ahead of Mr. Muktar Shagari who was the original PDP candidate prior to the imposition of Wammako. This action contravened the Electoral Act of 2006 and clearly violated section 187.91)  of the Constitution that mandates any candidate to be fielded by any party to be a member of such political party at least 60 days before the election.  Wammako was known to be an ANPP flagbearer before the shady negotiation that forced Muktar Sahagari to abandon his ambition and reluctantly agree to become a running mate to a corrupt and less competent candidate. Apart from all this, Alhaji Wammako was not morally fit for the exalted office of Governor having been found guilty of fraud and embezzlement which led to his forced resignation and his inglorious exit from the office of the deputy governor of Sokoto State in 2006.

However, the case is currently with the same Court of the Appeal which initially annulled the purported election of Alh. Aliyu Wamakko as Sokoto State Governor and by implication excluded Wamakko from a re-run election. The court went ahead to impose a mandatory fine of Fifty thousand Naira each against him and the INEC respectively in a landmark judgment of the Court of Appeal Ruling of April 11th, 2008.  The Court of Appeal was categorical in its judgment that Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko was not qualified to contest the said elections because of the breaches of the Constitution and the Electoral Act deduced from the evidence presented before the lower tribunal as regarding his candidature for the 14th April, 2007 election. Rather than be sobered by the judgments, the PDP and INEC rather went ahead to instigate violence, terror and indiscriminate arrests of opposition members who they perceived as threats to the planned second imposition of Alhaji Wamakko as Governor of the state. Typically, the PDP ignored the ruling and once again fielded Wammako as a candidate in another kangaroo re-run election that was massively rigged.

The question on everyone’s lips is this: will Sokoto people get justice like their compatriots in Edo and Ondo States? The answer to this lies in the hands of the judges of the appeal court who will determine the fate of Wammako and the entire people of Sokoto state. The Nigerian judiciary has played a very important role in the sustenance of our fragile democratic process by upholding the truth as exhibited by those courageous judges involved in the landmark judgments involving Anambra (in the case of Peter Obi versus Ngige of the PDP), Edo, Rivers and Ondo States, even at the peril of their personal lives.The entire world is waiting on the case of Sokoto to see whether these judges will make history by writing their names in gold and laying an enduring judicial legacy for our frail democracy. “Their names will not be forgotten in the history of their Land; those who ruined it and those who saved it”.

Since Wammako gate-crashed into the Sokoto State Government House as the self-styled/appointed governor of the state on May 29, 2007 - having been forcefully enthroned by INEC and his retinue of political bandits - Sokoto State, hitherto the most peaceful state in Nigeria, has lost its innocence with pains and unlimited agonies unleashed on everyone without exception.

Alhaji Aliyu Wamakko’s three year-holocaust in Sokoto State has wreaked so much havoc that generations yet unborn, will live to know that an unrepentant vagabond once captured the state and unleashed the most devastating attack on all facets of human life in conjunction with his squad of political vampires in the PDP who sucked the state dry economically, morally, culturally and politically.

It is of course, highly imperative to say that any  ruling of the Court of Appeal in favor of Sokoto people will be a big relief for the good people of Sokoto State who as victims of Wamakko’s years of brigandage have watched helplessly with anger and frustration the open rape of their state by these marauding gangsters, but kept their collective faith in the courage of the judiciary to dispense justice without fear or favour and the resilience of the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) to defend the legitimate mandate given to its gubernatorial candidate, Alhaji Mohammadu Maigari Dingyadi  in the April 14, 2007 election.

However, any judgment in favor of Wammako will be a tragic abortion of justice: not only would this wrongdoer go unpunished he would also reap bountifully the fruits of his unwholesome labour - a five year term comprising a standard four-year term plus the 12 months of illegal tenure he enjoyed  during the prosecution of the petition against his illegal return at the 14 th April, 2007  election). Effectively this means that while those candidates who legitimately contested and won their elections as Governors in the 14 th April, 2007 elections will vacate their offices in 2011, Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko will remain Governor of Sokoto State for another year as a reward for being an unqualified candidate at that election. And come 2012, he would still be entitled to contest for another 4 years as Governor.  This must not be allowed to happen.

It is our joint/communal responsibility to save our nascent democracy. Our appeal goes to the Nigerian media of which many journalists have paid the supreme price of their lives in the struggle for democracy. The Nigerian Labour Congress, (NLC) should stand firm in support of the truth. The Nigeria Bar Association should not fold their arms at such a time as this. The Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), under the leadership of Alhaji Balarabe Musa, should fight to save our multi party system. We call on all civil rights organizations - (CD, CLO, NANS, CDHR, AREWA, OPC, MASSOB) - and opinion leaders like Femi Falana, Prof. Wole Soyinka, Chief Olisa Agbakoba and other prominent Nigerians who have long served as voices of Nigeria’s conscience to speak up on the Sokoto issue and condemn the judicial sacrilege being committed by the INEC and PDP.

“Every onlooker is either a coward or a traitor” – Frantz Fanon

Oludare Ogunlana is a political activist. He writes from Baltimore, MD, USA