Date Published: 12/23/09

22 nd December 2009.

Press Release.

Lagos AC Demands Quick Conclusion of Ekiti and Osun Governorship Cases .

The Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress has called on the judiciary to quickly resolve the governorship tussles in Osun and Ekiti States, to ensure that the country puts the ghost of the mangled 2007 elections behind them and prepare for the next polls in 2011. The party says it is now becoming tardy for the judiciary to further prolong the cases when the nation should be preparing for a fresh election in 2011.

In a release in Lagos, signed by the Lagos State Publicity Secretary of the AC, Joe Igbokwe, the party said that the pending cases instituted by the AC in the two states need to be quickly put behind the nation and the party for the party to face bigger tasks ahead. It therefore maintains that the needless prolongation of the cases is injurious to the country’s democracy.

“Our party has been waiting with great expectation for the conclusion of its cases in Osun and Ekiti, where we believe, if justice is done, our party would emerge victorious at the end of the day. We note that even as the tribunals in both states have shown evidence of ensuring that justice is done at the end of the day, there have been several bottlenecks employed by the PDP to obstruct and delay justice in both cases.

“The AC believes that the country deserves more than we are getting at present and a situation where an election that was purportedly conducted nearly three years ago is still at the first tribunal. We see this as one anomaly, which must be corrected for us to have a free and fair system where no impostor is invested with powers and mandates he never earned in the first instance. We believe that justice delayed is justice denied and this is the reason why we are calling on the Ekiti and Osun State tribunals to adopt any measure that will assist them to deliver justice in the cases the AC brought before them.

“In making this demand, we are aware of the strength of our cases at the two tribunals and we feel that those who want to continue wielding illegitimate mandates will do anything to ensure the cases are not quickly resolved so that they will continue reigning in power. We believe this is antithetical to the canons of democracy and that the judiciary should not continue granting them these unmerited favours. We therefore challenge the judiciary to ensure that those cases are quickly put behind us so that the rightful owners of the disputed mandates would assume their positions.

“We, once again, step up our call for complete electoral reform in which a time frame should be given to the resolution of electoral cases so as to avoid the pitfall we are presently experiencing in the two cases and several others all over the country.

“Lagos AC calls for a complete adoption of the reports of the Justice Uwais electoral reform panel. We urge Nigerians to stand firm and demand reforms of the electoral process since the PDP has demonstrated an unwillingness to let such reform take place, in the hope that they will continue benefitting from electoral fraud. We want Nigerians to insist that the only condition a fresh election would be held in 2011 would be a wholesome adoption of the Uwais panel reports. We dare say that anything short of this will amount to an invitation to anarchy and we must work towards avoiding this in 2011.”

Joe Igbokwe

Publicity Secretary,

Lagos AC.