Since the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC issued
the controversial Certificate of Return to Uche Ogah, the document has
become an object of ridicule. Every now and then, people , especially on
the social media, are flaunting one manner of certificate or the other
and lay claims to the governorship position of the state. The situation
is indeed ridiculous and depicts the deplorable level at which our
coveted political offices have been ridiculed by the actions of
institutions vested with the mandate of strengthening and protecting our
democracy.
Last week Uche Ogah’s certificate of return came under serious
scrutiny in the public court .The validity of the document was
questioned on various grounds. One is the date of election and
the second is that the document does not bear the Nigerian Coat
of Arm, a national identity and symbol which arguably
authenticates every government document.
It will be recalled that the April 11, 2015 governorship
election in Abia could not produce a winner because elections in
some units in some local government areas of the state was
nullified and a supplementary election was rescheduled in the
affected areas. The total votes of the affected areas where
supplementary election was held surpassed the margin with which
Okezie Ikpeazu, the winner of the election was leading the
runners up, Dr. Alex Otti of the All Progressives Grand
Alliance, APGA and there was no clear winner of the election.
The law stipulates that in such situation that a supplementary
election would be conducted for a clear winner to emerge.
When the supplementary election was conducted later, Ikpeazu
maintained his lead and was declared the winner. Ikpeazu’s
certificate, unlike Ogah’s controversial certificate of return,
reflected the two dates of the elections, the main election and the
supplementary election.
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Abia State was the first to
fire the salvo .The party roundly condemned the judgment of
Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which
purported to have sacked Governor Okezie Ikpeazu and formed the
basis of this fresh tension in Abia, as perverse and grossly
unjust, adding that their position was incontrovertibly informed
by their knowledge of the fact that Governor Ikpeazu was a public
servant who paid his taxes appropriately under the Pay As You Earn
(PAYE) system.
The party also berated the haste with which the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) issued a Certificate of return to Mr.
Ogah, without giving Governor Ikpeazu the benefit of the judicial
windows available to him, irrespective of the pendency of his appeal
in the Court of Appeal. It described INEC’s action as condemnable,
obnoxious and holistically unacceptable; stressing that the Party,
hereby, recollects that the Governorship election of 2015 in Abia
State came in two phases, that of April 11 which was declared
inconclusive by the Electoral body and that of April 25 which
conclusively declared and confirmed Okezie Ikpeazu as the
Governor-elect of Abia State.
According to PDP, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s Certificate of Return was
a product of the elections of April 11 and April 25 of 2015, as
properly reflected on the Certificate of return. The party therefore
vehemently rejected the Certificate of Return erroneously issued to
Mr. Ogah for, among many other reasons, the enormous fact that the
Certificate of return failed to reflect the fact that the
governorship election took place on two different dates.
To the best of my knowledge, since the argument questioning the
validity of Ogah’s certificate of return erupted, the issuing
authority has not offered any explanations to clarify the issues
raised. The only known position was the one by one of Ogah’s
hireling on the social media who alleged the the commission has
threatened to institute legal action against any individual or
media outfit questioning the validity of the document.
I want to strongly believe that the position of the non-
commissioned and self- styled INEC spokesperson does not represent
the position of the commission rather that of his pay master, Uche
Ogah. My belief is enforced by the fact that INEC as a responsible
institution could not issue such threat considering the fact that
our legal instruments guarantee citizens the “right to freedom of
expression” and also the right to demand information from
government institutions. INEC’s clarification on this issue is
critical and highly demanded to halt further speculations and erase
negative impressions already established.
Ogah’s certificate of return validity argument was a comic relief to
Abians who were soaked by tension occasioned by the desperate
dispositions of some anti- democratic forces to truncate the mandate
of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu. Creative artists deploy comic relief in
the works of art to relief their audience of tension. Indeed, Ogah’s
certificate of return validity argument was indeed comic and could be
considered preliminary.
The main relief came with the pronouncement of Court of Appeal
sitting in Abuja which said that the Abia State Governor, Dr Okezie
Ikpeazu should retain his seat as governor of the state pending the
time the court will hear his appeal challenging the judgment of a
Federal High Court which removed him from office.
Political observers are earnestly waiting the commencement of the
fireworks at the Court of Appeal where the five grounds of appeal
by the Abia State Governor would be looked at .The governor said
that the Federal High Court lacked the power to order him to
vacate the seat of Abia State Governor. The notice of appeal
reads: “The trial judge erred in law when he ordered as a
consequential order that the appellant vacates his office as the
Governor of Abia state immediately when there was no jurisdiction
in the Federal High Court to remove, vacate the occupier of the
office of the governor of a state or order the removal of such
officer after the unsuccessful challenge of the result of the
election at the Tribunal and swearing in of the appellant as the
governor.”
The governor said that the only power, authority and order
exercisable by the Federal High Court was to disqualify the candidate
from contesting the election based on section 31(6) of the Electoral
Act 2010.
I He also faulted the judge when he held that he did not pay his tax
for the years 2011, 2012 and 2013, at when due, when he was a public
officer whose tax deduction was under Pay As You Earn (PAYE) scheme where
tax deductions were from the source of his monthly salary by the tax
authorities who issued all the tax receipts and certificates.
Ikpeazu said that the Abia State Board of Internal Revenue Services
that issued him with the tax certificates had not declared the
certificates forged and that the trial court did not invite the
issuing authorities to give evidence in the course of the trial.
According to the appeal, the plaintiff, Dr Samson Udechukwu Ogah was
not a staff of the Abia Board of Internal Revenue and did not any
staff of the board to testify that the tax certificates were forged.
The governor accused the trial judge, Justice Okon Abang of
violating his right to fair hearing by embarking on judicial
investigation without giving him (Ikepazu) the opportunity to
address the court on the issue, adding : “The learned trial judge
erred in law when he held that the appellant presented false
information to the Independent National Electoral Commission by his
ingenous meticulous study and investigation of documents filed in
courts in the recess of his chambers and thereby violated the right
of the appellant to fair hearing.”
He said that the judge had no duty to investigate the contents of
documents dumped on the court in the recess of his chambers with a
view to finding for the plaintiff, stressing that” the decision of
the judge which arose from the judicial investigation without
opportunity to the appellant violated the appellant’s right to fair
hearing”.
The conduct of Abians in the face of these undue provocations is
commendable. It attests to the fact that Abians are peace- loving .
The people who deserve greater commendation are the people of Ukwa-
Ngwa ethnic- nationality. They have not had a shot at the
governorship position of the state since its creation in1991. This
is despite their numerical strength. The divide has nine out of the
17 local government areas in the state. Also, the “Abia Charter of
Equity”, a document guiding the distribution of the governorship
position among the divides in the state came on stream at the
commencement of this democratic dispensation in 1999 should be
respected.
While Ukwa- Ngwa people are highly commended, we should not fail to
remind our over- ambitious politicians that there is an extent to
which human patience can be stretched. it is also pertinent to
admonish them to pursue their political ambition within the limits
of decency as Wolsey admonishes Cromwell in William Shakespeare”
Henry VIII thus”Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition:By that
sin fell the angels; how can man, then, The image of his Maker, hope
to win by it?”
Ambitions that ahve the capacity of stoking fire of disunity, violence,
among others, are not worthy to be pursued.
Ukegbu, a public policy analyst and communication startegist, writes
from Umuahia, Abia State.