Since the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC issued<\/p>\n
the controversial Certificate of Return to Uche Ogah, the document has
\nbecome an object of ridicule. Every now and then, people , especially on
\nthe social media, are flaunting one manner of certificate or the other
\nand lay claims to the governorship position of the state. The situation
\nis indeed ridiculous and depicts the deplorable level at which our
\ncoveted political offices have been ridiculed by the actions of
\ninstitutions vested with the mandate of strengthening and protecting our
\ndemocracy.<\/p>\n
Last week Uche Ogah’s certificate of return came under serious
\nscrutiny in the public court .The validity of the document was
\nquestioned on various grounds. One is the date of election and
\nthe second is that the document does not bear the Nigerian Coat
\nof Arm, a national identity and symbol which arguably
\nauthenticates every government document.<\/p>\n
It will be recalled that the April 11, 2015 governorship
\nelection in Abia could not produce a winner because elections in
\nsome units in some local government areas of the state was
\nnullified and a supplementary election was rescheduled in the
\naffected areas. The total votes of the affected areas where
\nsupplementary election was held surpassed the margin with which
\nOkezie Ikpeazu, the winner of the election was leading the
\nrunners up, Dr. Alex Otti of the All Progressives Grand
\nAlliance, APGA and there was no clear winner of the election.
\nThe law stipulates that in such situation that a supplementary
\nelection would be conducted for a clear winner to emerge.<\/p>\n
When the supplementary election was conducted later, Ikpeazu
\nmaintained his lead and was declared the winner. Ikpeazu’s
\ncertificate, unlike Ogah’s controversial certificate of return,
\nreflected the two dates of the elections, the main election and the
\nsupplementary election.<\/p>\n
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Abia State was the first to
\nfire the salvo .The party roundly condemned the judgment of
\nJustice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which
\npurported to have sacked Governor Okezie Ikpeazu and formed the
\nbasis of this fresh tension in Abia, as perverse and grossly
\nunjust, adding that their position was incontrovertibly informed
\nby their knowledge of the fact that Governor Ikpeazu was a public
\nservant who paid his taxes appropriately under the Pay As You Earn
\n(PAYE) system.<\/p>\n
The party also berated the haste with which the Independent National
\nElectoral Commission (INEC) issued a Certificate of return to Mr.
\nOgah, without giving Governor Ikpeazu the benefit of the judicial
\nwindows available to him, irrespective of the pendency of his appeal
\nin the Court of Appeal. It described INEC’s action as condemnable,
\nobnoxious and holistically unacceptable; stressing that the Party,
\nhereby, recollects that the Governorship election of 2015 in Abia
\nState came in two phases, that of April 11 which was declared
\ninconclusive by the Electoral body and that of April 25 which
\nconclusively declared and confirmed Okezie Ikpeazu as the
\nGovernor-elect of Abia State.<\/p>\n
According to PDP, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu\u2019s Certificate of Return was
\na product of the elections of April 11 and April 25 of 2015, as
\nproperly reflected on the Certificate of return. The party therefore
\nvehemently rejected the Certificate of Return erroneously issued to
\nMr. Ogah for, among many other reasons, the enormous fact that the
\nCertificate of return failed to reflect the fact that the
\ngovernorship election took place on two different dates.<\/p>\n
To the best of my knowledge, since the argument questioning the
\nvalidity of Ogah’s certificate of return erupted, the issuing
\nauthority has not offered any explanations to clarify the issues
\nraised. The only known position was the one by one of Ogah’s
\nhireling on the social media who alleged the the commission has
\nthreatened to institute legal action against any individual or
\nmedia outfit questioning the validity of the document.<\/p>\n
I want to strongly believe that the position of the non-
\ncommissioned and self- styled INEC spokesperson does not represent
\nthe position of the commission rather that of his pay master, Uche
\nOgah. My belief is enforced by the fact that INEC as a responsible
\ninstitution could not issue such threat considering the fact that
\nour legal instruments guarantee citizens the “right to freedom of
\nexpression” and also the right to demand information from
\ngovernment institutions. INEC’s clarification on this issue is
\ncritical and highly demanded to halt further speculations and erase
\nnegative impressions already established.<\/p>\n
Ogah’s certificate of return validity argument was a comic relief to
\nAbians who were soaked by tension occasioned by the desperate
\ndispositions of some anti- democratic forces to truncate the mandate
\nof Governor Okezie Ikpeazu. Creative artists deploy comic relief in
\nthe works of art to relief their audience of tension. Indeed, Ogah’s
\ncertificate of return validity argument was indeed comic and could be
\nconsidered preliminary.<\/p>\n
The main relief came with the pronouncement of Court of Appeal
\nsitting in Abuja which said that the Abia State Governor, Dr Okezie
\nIkpeazu should retain his seat as governor of the state pending the
\ntime the court will hear his appeal challenging the judgment of a
\nFederal High Court which removed him from office.<\/p>\n
Political observers are earnestly waiting the commencement of the
\nfireworks at the Court of Appeal where the five grounds of appeal
\nby the Abia State Governor would be looked at .The governor said
\nthat the Federal High Court lacked the power to order him to
\nvacate the seat of Abia State Governor. The notice of appeal
\nreads: “The trial judge erred in law when he ordered as a
\nconsequential order that the appellant vacates his office as the
\nGovernor of Abia state immediately when there was no jurisdiction
\nin the Federal High Court to remove, vacate the occupier of the
\noffice of the governor of a state or order the removal of such
\nofficer after the unsuccessful challenge of the result of the
\nelection at the Tribunal and swearing in of the appellant as the
\ngovernor.”<\/p>\n
The governor said that the only power, authority and order
\nexercisable by the Federal High Court was to disqualify the candidate
\nfrom contesting the election based on section 31(6) of the Electoral
\nAct 2010.<\/p>\n
I He also faulted the judge when he held that he did not pay his tax
\nfor the years 2011, 2012 and 2013, at when due, when he was a public
\nofficer whose tax deduction was under Pay As You Earn (PAYE) scheme where
\ntax deductions were from the source of his monthly salary by the tax
\nauthorities who issued all the tax receipts and certificates.<\/p>\n
Ikpeazu said that the Abia State Board of Internal Revenue Services
\nthat issued him with the tax certificates had not declared the
\ncertificates forged and that the trial court did not invite the
\nissuing authorities to give evidence in the course of the trial.<\/p>\n
According to the appeal, the plaintiff, Dr Samson Udechukwu Ogah was
\nnot a staff of the Abia Board of Internal Revenue and did not any
\nstaff of the board to testify that the tax certificates were forged.<\/p>\n
The governor accused the trial judge, Justice Okon Abang of
\nviolating his right to fair hearing by embarking on judicial
\ninvestigation without giving him (Ikepazu) the opportunity to
\naddress the court on the issue, adding : “The learned trial judge
\nerred in law when he held that the appellant presented false
\ninformation to the Independent National Electoral Commission by his
\ningenous meticulous study and investigation of documents filed in
\ncourts in the recess of his chambers and thereby violated the right
\nof the appellant to fair hearing.”<\/p>\n
He said that the judge had no duty to investigate the contents of
\ndocuments dumped on the court in the recess of his chambers with a
\nview to finding for the plaintiff, stressing that” the decision of
\nthe judge which arose from the judicial investigation without
\nopportunity to the appellant violated the appellant’s right to fair
\nhearing”.<\/p>\n
The conduct of Abians in the face of these undue provocations is
\ncommendable. It attests to the fact that Abians are peace- loving .
\nThe people who deserve greater commendation are the people of Ukwa-
\nNgwa ethnic- nationality. They have not had a shot at the
\ngovernorship position of the state since its creation in1991. This
\nis despite their numerical strength. The divide has nine out of the
\n17 local government areas in the state. Also, the “Abia Charter of
\nEquity”, a document guiding the distribution of the governorship
\nposition among the divides in the state came on stream at the
\ncommencement of this democratic dispensation in 1999 should be
\nrespected.<\/p>\n
While Ukwa- Ngwa people are highly commended, we should not fail to
\nremind our over- ambitious politicians that there is an extent to
\nwhich human patience can be stretched. it is also pertinent to
\nadmonish them to pursue their political ambition within the limits
\nof decency as Wolsey admonishes Cromwell in William Shakespeare”
\nHenry VIII thus”Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition:By that
\nsin fell the angels; how can man, then, The image of his Maker, hope
\nto win by it?”<\/p>\n
Ambitions that ahve the capacity of stoking fire of disunity, violence,
\namong others, are not worthy to be pursued.<\/p>\n
Ukegbu, a public policy analyst and communication startegist, writes
\nfrom Umuahia, Abia State.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 ,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n