BY AUSTIN UGANWA<\/p>\n
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja Tuesday, November 19 affirmed the
\nvictory of Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha as the validly elected governor of
\nImo State. The Appeal Court panel led by Justice Oyebisi Omoleye
\naccordingly struck out the application filed by Uche Nwosu of Action
\nAlliance; Senator Hope Uzodinma, All Progressives Congress and Senator
\nIfeanyi Ararume of All Progressives Grand Alliance that\u00a0 requested\u00a0 the
\nsetting aside of the tribunal judgment\u00a0 in their favour.<\/p>\n
The Appeal Court also\u00a0 upheld\u00a0 the preliminary objection raised by
\nIhedioha on the eligibility of\u00a0 Nwosu to appeal against the tribunal
\njudgment . This provided additional\u00a0 legal dais\u00a0 \u00a0leaned on\u00a0 by the
\nCourt to declare Nwosu\u2019s suit incongruous and defective leading to the
\nN500,000 award of damage\u00a0 levied against him by the court. Ihedioha\u2019s
\nobjection of Nwosu\u2019s suit was a consequence of the Supreme\u00a0 and Appeal
\nCourts earlier rulings which invalidated Nwosu\u2019s\u00a0 governorship
\ncandidacy on the platform of AA.<\/p>\n
Ararume and\u00a0 Uzodinma who came distant third and fourth respectively
\nduring the March 9 governorship election in Imo and oddly\u00a0 approached
\nthe court to declare them winner had their cases unsurprisingly
\ndismissed on the basis of lack of evidence and merit. The court held
\nthat it is settled law that \u201chearsay evidence is not admissible in
\ncourt\u201d.<\/p>\n
Apart from the defeat they suffered in the hands of Ihedioha during the
\nMarch 9 governorship election, the landmark\u00a0 Appeal Court verdict was
\nthe second time the trio of Nwosu, Ararume and Uzodinma would be
\nflattened by Ihedioha on point of law.\u00a0 The first was at the tribunal
\nwhere\u00a0 three-member panel had in a unanimous decision delivered on
\nSeptember 21 in Jabi, Abuja held that\u00a0 Ihedioha was lawfully declared
\nthe winner of the governorship election by the Independent National
\nElectoral Commission (INEC). The panel led by Justice Malami Dongondaji
\nhad in the judgment dismissed their petitions for lacking in merit on
\nthe grounds that their allegations were unfounded because of their
\nfailure to prove their case. This\u00a0 essentially consituted the pivot
\nhinged\u00a0 on by the Appeal Court to grant\u00a0 its ruling<\/p>\n
There are far-reaching deductions and lessons drawn from the two legal
\nvictories recorded by Ihedioha in the past eight months. One was the
\nfailure of the three petitioners to prove with evidence their claim that
\nIhedioha did not make one-quarter in two-thirds of the 27 local
\ngovernments in the state. Similarly, they were unable to prove other
\nallegations brought before the courts, including purported INEC\u2019s
\nsubstantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act and Guidelines,
\nresulting in the rulings of both the tribunal and the Appeal Court that
\ntheir petitions were based on hearsay and therefore lacked merit. This
\nfinds authentication in the fact that Nigeria law system and court
\nprocesses are anchored fundamentally on nothing but hard evidence.<\/p>\n
In view of the above realization, for any petitioner to get favourable
\njudgment he has to transcend beyond beer joint claims apparently leaned
\non by Ihedioha\u2019s opponents that informed their inability to\u00a0 prove
\ntheir case concretely with evidence. The result was their failed attempt
\nto thwart the mandate collectively given to Ihedioha by Imo people. The
\ncourts simply followed settled position of law to demonstrate in their
\njudgments the banal, boring and petty nature of the petitions raised by
\nUzodinma, Ararume and Nwosu against Ihedioha<\/p>\n
Two, the legally established inconsequential nature of the petitions
\nunderscores the desperation and greed inherent in the pursuit of the
\nlawsuits up to the Appeal Court.\u00a0 The desperation will certainly be more
\nacidic\u00a0 if the trio decide to head for the Supreme Court. Not a few
\nwell-meaning Imo people believe that such a move will amount to
\nunnecessary distraction on Ihedioha-led administration\u2019s rebuild
\nactivities going on at stunningly record rate and needless waste of the
\napex court\u2019s resources. This is markedly so because the
\nincontrovertible position of the law on the petitions has already been
\nrecognized by the earlier panel and Court that heard the petitions and
\ntherefore would have the same effect in the apex Court<\/p>\n
The above identified realities obviously lie at the heart of the
\ncomments credited to the\u00a0 \u00a0elder statesmen of Imo extraction who showed
\ntheir disdain over the lawsuits and\u00a0 any attempt of taking the petitions
\nto the Apex Court .Mike Ahamba, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), for
\ninstance,\u00a0 called on the opponents of\u00a0 Ihedioha to sheath their sword
\nand allow him concentrate on his resolute moves towards delivering on
\nhis campaign promises. Describing Ihedioha\u2019s victory at the Court of
\nAppeal as the true reflection of the wishes of the people as evidenced
\nin the polls, he urged them to work with Ihedioha rather than
\ndistracting him any further.<\/p>\n
Chief Emmanuel Iwuayanwu, member of the People\u2019s Democratic Party
\n(PDP) Board of Trustees enjoined them to accept the verdict of the
\nAppeal Court in the interest of the people of the state. \u201cThe victory
\nhas confirmed the verdict of the people, so as an elder I want to plead
\nwith Araraume,\u00a0 Uzodinma and Nwosu to rally round Ihedioha and help in
\nthe rebuilding process of\u00a0 the state\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n
Iwuanyanwu and Ahamba are right. The court victory is consistent with
\nthe will and aspirations of Imo people who laid their resources and
\nvotes towards making the triumph at the polls possible. This is
\nunderlined by the long-held aphorism that the voice of the people is the
\nvoice of God.<\/p>\n
On the contrary, the distractions arising from the lawsuits negate in
\nclear terms the rebuild mission of Ihedioha administration which has
\nevidently been on track since inception May 29. This is evidenced in the
\n18 roads reconstruction projects that are currently ongoing; pension
\nreform and regular payment of pensioners; agricultural development
\nprogrammes; healthcare services revamp; rehabilitation of technical and
\nvocational colleges; enthronement of due process in procurement and
\nrevenue generation through the introduction of Treasury Single Account
\nand a wide spectrum of others that cut across all sectors of Imo
\ndevelopment.<\/p>\n
DR. AUSTIN UGANWA, SENIOR SPECIAL ASSISTANT ON DOCUMENTATION TO IMO
\nGOVERNMENT,\u00a0 WROTE FROM OWERRI<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BY AUSTIN UGANWA The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja Tuesday, November 19 affirmed the victory of Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha as the validly elected governor of Imo State. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":69254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n