The legal battle over the conduct of the last
governorship election held in Anambra State last November has shifted to
the Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu today.
This morning, a five man special panel headed by Justice Mohammed
Lawal Garba, a Justice of Court of Appeal from Port Harcourt Division
will hear three appeals filed by the trio of Senator Chris Ngige of All
Progressives Congress (APC), Tony Nwoye of Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) and Dr. Chike Obidigbo of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA)
all challenging the judgments delivered by the Governorship Election
Petition Tribunal headed by Justice Ishaq Bello on the 4th of June 2014.
While Ngige and Nwoye in their respective Notices of Appeal seek the
upturning of the tribunal judgment and the nullification of the entire
governorship election on the basis of acts of gross irregularities and
the non-qualification of the APGA candidate, Willie Obiano, Obidigbo
wants the judgment set aside and a declaration made in his favour that
he and not Obiano was the authentic APGA candidate in the said
election.
Leading the legal team for Senator Ngige and APC in the appeal is a
former NBA President and ACN governorship candidate in the Ondo
Governorship election of 2012, Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN) while a
former resident electoral commissioner (REC) for INEC and now private
legal practitioner, Mr. Ahmed Raji (SAN) will be leading the team for
INEC. An Onitsha based legal practitioner, Mr Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN) will
be leading the team for Obiano with Mr. Patrick Ikwueto, SAN appearing
for APGA. Saharareporters gathered that all briefs of argument have been
filed and exchanged by the parties. Based on the provisions of the
constitution, judgment in the three appeals will be delivered on or
before the 3rd of August 2014.
A lawyer conversant with the matter told Saharareporters that three
main issues will be thrashed out in the appeal. The first is the
eligibility of Mr Willie Obiano to contest the election in the first
place. It was alleged by all the petitioners that prior to the election
Obiano while being a registered voter in Lagos State got himself
registered twice as a voter in Anambra State. Under the Electoral Act,
multiple registrations are a criminal offence, and the presentation of
one of such fraudulently acquired voter’s card by Obiano to INEC in his
nomination form automatically disqualified him from contesting the
election.
Despite the overwhelming evidence tendered by the petitioners at the
tribunal, the Ishaq Bello panel said to have been compromised by former
Governor Peter Obi ruled that the allegation was not proved ‘beyond all
reasonable doubt’ and that the tribunal lacked jurisdiction to hear
criminal complaints in an election petition. The court of appeal will
hear argument on both sides on whether the tribunal was right or wrong.
The second critical issue that will come for argument before the court
is whether the voter register used by INEC in the conduct of the
election was invalid. INEC had admitted that three days to the election
it discovered several errors in the voters registers and had to
‘sanitize’ them in order to remove ‘impurities.
' The ‘sanitization’ and removal of ‘impurities’ led to thousands of
eligible voters in Anambra State not finding their names leading to more
than 70% of voter disenfranchisement, - a fact attested by election
observers. The third issue the Court will confront is whether Dr.
Chike Obidigbo nominated as governorship candidate by Maxi Okwu faction
of APGA or Willie Obiano nominated by Victor Umeh faction of APGA is the
authentic candidate in the election. Both factions have court orders
obtained from various divisions of Federal High and Court of Appeal to
back up their respective claims. If the court finds that Obiano was not
the authentic candidate, it may likely order a fresh poll based on the
amendment to the Electoral Act prohibiting the court from declaring a
candidate who did not participate in all stages of the election as
winner.
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