Date Published: 11/16/09

Lagos AC hails Enugu Appeal Court on Andy Uba's Case

16th November 2009.

Press Release.

The Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress has hailed the judgment of the Enugu Appeal Court, which threw away the frivolous petition of Mr. Andy Uba seeking to be declared a governor-in-waiting for Anambra State. The party says that by that decision, the judiciary has shown an inclination to improve on the content of the sham democracy Nigeria is struggling through in over ten years of misrule.

In a release in Lagos, signed by the Lagos State Publicity Secretary of the AC, Joe Igbokwe, the party said that what the judges have proved that justice is not yet for sale in Nigeria. The party says it would have been an unmitigated disaster if the judges have granted Andy Uba’s prayer as such judgment would have triggered a constitutional crisis that would have been impossible to handle.

“We were surprised that the Appeal Court could entertain such case that seeks its over riding a verdict of the Supreme Court. However,  we cannot but laud the courage of the judges to dismiss the suit in the face of what was obviously a looming constitutional crisis. We believe the verdict remains further rebuke on Andy Uba’s wishful political dream, which lives on the belief that Anambra State is for the highest bidder.

“While we congratulate the Enugu Appeal Court for throwing away that needless case, we want to also express our appreciation to the civil society and all men of good will who saw through the desperate attempt by Andy Uba, in cahoots  with his lawyers to ridicule the judicial process through unending strings of frivolous petitions and judicial forum shopping. We are glad that the raging and dangerous ambition of Andy Uba to rule Anambra was finally laid to rest by that judicial verdict and we believe that the Nigerian democracy would be the healthier for this latest verdict.

“We are disappointed that several people that should know allowed themselves to be bought as to openly and shamelessly tag along with Uba in this wild hallucination. Among such people are people who have occupied such high office as Vice Chancellor of a federal university but who turned pitiable propagandists for Uba in his era of fantasy. We believe that the Nigerian educational system must be completely reviewed to ensure that only people with character and integrity head Nigerian universities and not hustlers and clowns without integrity who could be bought two for a penny by any person that has the money.

“Lagos AC wants the judiciary to ensure that such cases that rather aim at ridiculing the process of adjudication in Nigeria are not entertained so as to serve notice to those that believe that the judiciary is a porous process that allows their selfish wishes and subjects the interests of the whole to these wishes. We want the country’s judiciary to remain firm and fearless in clearing the thick fog of confusion and uncertainty that has been built into the present democratic process. We acknowledge that the dismissal of the Andy Uba case is another sure way of sending a clear and unambiguous message to desperadoes and their ilk that Nigeria will certainly overcome the present darkness if every institution does its works conscientiously and to the tenets of the law.

“We however state our continued opposition to the present INEC leadership, which once again, proved it has no morals or character by aligning with Andy Uba in the dismissed case. We state that the most important impediment to a free and fair electoral process remains the type of amoral and ultra-corrupt electoral body we now have in Nigeria. We want to state that any electoral process will come to nothing if handled by a corrupt, sick and deranged electoral body as the one that ruined Nigeria during the scandalous 2007 elections. By bandying with Andy Uba in yet another fruitless effort to ride rough shod over due process in Nigeria, the INEC leadership has proved once again, that it is beyond redemption. Any day, Iwu and his scamming cohorts stay in office, demean the electoral process and makes the dream of free and fair elections, a mirage that will never come to pass.”

Joe Igbokwe.

Publicity Secretary,

Lagos AC