News
Abia Tribunal: Issues arising from miscarriage of justice *Part One
By Eze Chikamnayo
On Friday, the 6th day of October, 2023, the reconstituted Governorship Tribunal that oscillated between Government House – Hotel Damgrette and the Court delivered it’s very predictable and widely considered “Perverse ” Verdict in favour of their host, Mr Alex Otti.
Abians ignored them as they didn’t disappoint those who were convinced ab-initio that their stay in Umuahia was a mere rehearsal.
Now that we are happily done with that unfortunate episode, let’s quickly examine some of the real issues brought before the Tribunal which can neither be swept away nor sacrilegiously sacrificed on the altar of brinkmanship.
First, it is not the intendment of the Law that the Law should give with one hand and also take away with the other hand.
The Electoral Act clearly provided for witnesses to be subpoenaed and those witnesses can only be subpoenaed during the course of the tribunal trial, that’s after the petitioner has filled his petition.
The law did not contemplate and could not have contemplated a situation whereby witnesses of the adverse party would willingly depose to statements of oath for petitioners – to have enabled them file same along with their petition at the time of filling.
The above absurd and impossible scenario is what the trial tribunal held in their curious judgement which is clearly, to every discerning legal mind, an irrefutable error.
Ordinarily, once the final result of an election is declared, a party has just 21 days from the time of the declaration of results to file his petition.
The question which the tribunal failed to answer is whether a petitioner can get a tribunal which hasn’t started sitting to issue a subpoena on an adverse witness or party to compel such witness to make depositions for frontloading?
For instance, in the Abia Gubernatorial Elections case, INEC is the 1st Respondent in the Petition. There’s therefore no way PDP or Chief Ahiwe would have gotten the Tribunal to issue a Subpoena to get INEC to depose, sign and do all the administrative routine of the subpoena and hand it over to PDP to enable them to file (all within 21 days) when the tribunal is yet to start sitting. That is not possible.
The tribunal judges very well know that a Subpoena is a document used to COMPEL witnesses to come to court – whether recalcitrant witnesses or those who refuse to come UNLESS COMPELLED BY LAW.
The PDP and Chief Ahiwe took advantage of this provision of the law and brought the INEC witnesses to court yet the court unexplainably ruled that such witnesses should have been brought to depose at the time of filling!
By the wrongful exclusion of the official witnesses who came on subpoena, the tribunal willfully denied itself the benefit of their evidence both documentary and oral and in so doing, the petitioners were denied the benefits accruable from those evidence which inadvertently has evidently occasioned a glaring miscarriage of justice for which there should be an appeal.
Sadly, it is for such perplexing ground above that those who believe that tremendous amount of water has passed under the bridge in this Otti matter are predicating their position. This is a very sad story for the judiciary.
Another area of interest is what transpired regarding the Kano judgement which co-incidentally was put in evidence by Alex Otti and the Labour Party as Respondents – they were the ones that initialled that particular angle.
As we speak, there is in existence, a Judgement in rem and in personna and subsisting to the effect that candidates of Labour Party were disqualified and that they had none for the elections.
Mr Alex Otti as shown by him as the Second Respondent, interestingly made efforts to appeal against the Kano Judgement in order to be hurriedly sworn in as Governor.
But that particular appeal is no longer subsisting by virtue of the operation of the Constitution and that leaves us only with the judgement of the Federal High Court Kano.
Invariably, the fact is that before the Law, Mr Alex Otti was not even a candidate during the gubernatorial elections for Abia State held on the 18th of March.
That is the irrefutable effect of the subsisting judgement of the Federal High Court Kano which remains and will continue to remain subsisting since the Constitutional window created for its appeal has forever elapsed.
In their decision, the Abia Gubernatorial Elections Tribunal again apparently glossed over the grave implication of the Kano judgement whereas they are supposed to have given effect to that judgement which is subsisting. Moreso since that is the cardinal ground in contention which is that Mr Alex Otti was at the time of the elections not qualified.
Remember that the said particular matter that resulted in the judgement of the Federal High Court Kano was initiated even before the election so it is a pre- election matter; already pending at the time.
The tribunal ought to have correctly given effect to that subsisting judgement against which there is not and can never be an appeal again because constitutionally the time allowed for any appeal on the matter has expired.
Thirdly, the Electoral Act provided for declaration of results at different levels insitu. That is wherever that level of election or collation took place.
If election takes place in the unit, it MUST be DECLARED there. Then the result must be taken to the Ward Collation Center and it MUST be collated there. Thereafter, the collated ward results must be taken to the LGA Collation Center where they will again be collated and also ANNOUNCED and DECLARED.
In the case of Obingwa Local Government, when the results which has duly passed through the Unit, Ward and LGA collation stages, were now brought to the final/State Collation Center at Umuahia, the cantankerous Returning Officer, one Mrs Nnenna Otti, for reasons best known to her, contrary to the provisions of the law decided that she wasn’t going to use the results ALREADY DECLARED AND ANNOUNCED IN OBINGWA LGA in the final collation at the state level.
She then brazenly took away the results to Abuja to be “RECOLLATED” ostensibly because she’s not comfortable with the outcome.
This illegal, hide and seek moves she did without notice to the political parties, again, contrary to the clear provisions of the Electoral Act and INEC Guidelines which makes it mandatory for the agents to witness what is happening.
After this strange “RE – COLLATION EXPEDITION” in far away Abuja, surprisingly no Agent of any political party witnessed or signed the new “Abuja Results ” Nnenna Otti and her cohorts concocted and brought back after a whole three days!
In a very condescending manner, unscrupulous Mrs Nnenna Otti, the obviously biased Returning Officer, came back and used the strange results to announce final scores thereby ROBBING THE PDP OF THEIR ADVANTAGE ACCRUING FROM THEIR KNOWN STRONGHOLD AND DENYING THEM LAWFUL VOTES already collated at all levels.
And that again, is one of the major reasons why the petitioners, Chief Ahiwe and the PDP complained that there was substantial non-compliance with the provisions of the law and then that Alex Otti and Labour Party did not win by majority of the votes cast.
In deciding this issue, the tribunal drew an instant explosion of noise and uproar in the Court Room from even journalists, when they magically held that the petitioners didn’t prove that the Obingwa LGA results were taken to Abuja – A FACT OF PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE WHICH THE RESPONDENTS ALREADY ADMITTED TO IN THEIR OWN DEPOSITION EVEN VIA THEIR STAR WITNESS AND WHICH WAS REPORTED IN VERY MAJOR MEDIA OUTLETS ACROSS THE GLOBE!
Such glaring, “overzealous”, miscarriage of justice in a FACT that would have entirely altered the outcome of the trial is another fundamental flaw.
With utmost respect to the Tribunal, this very perplexing finding made by them on the issue of the manipulation and exclusion of LAWFUL VOTES already collated from Obingwa LGA is to say the least, untenable.
Cases in the Tribunal are fought principally on pleadings and the petitioners (Ahiwe/PDP), pleaded that the Obingwa results, was collated, declared and announced at the LGA Collation Center at Obingwa and that when it was brought to Umuahia, the State Returning Officer, the reckless and incompetent Mrs Nnenna Otti suspended collation and took the results to Abuja for doctoring.
Interestingly, at the tribunal, both the Labour Party and Alex Otti admitted that they did go to Abuja with the Collated Obingwa LGA Results.
In fact, Mrs Nnenna Otti had a deposition prepared for her attached to the reply of the respondents wherein she gave graphic details of what made her take the already collated Obingwa LGA Results to Abuja for alteration.
So, the question of whether the Obingwa Results were taken to Abuja is not in dispute and it need not be proved any longer because in Law, A FACT THAT IS ADMITTED NEED NOT BE PROVED!
So, for the Tribunal to turn round and hold that the petitioners did not prove that the Obingwa Results were taken to Abuja is like a huge joke ; the 8th wonder of this world and a travesty which has occasioned a gross miscarriage of Justice in this case.
As always, Alex Otti is miserably daft and ignorant. His petty reactions to what some people has since described as “prepared” and “prepaid” is pathetic.
After the widely rejected Judgement , he danced naked in the streets taunting his opponents to the divert monies they intend to spend on appeals for building roads in their villages.
Yet, it is this same diminutive Akex Otti who after the 2015 gubernatorial elections went all the way up to the Supreme Court three good times and crisscrossed all other available courts in Nigeria in his futile attempt to truncate the Electoral mandate of his predecessor.
By hastily mocking the APC and PDP after this very controversial and curious judgement, he is nonsensically gloating in futility over nothing.
An election tribunal lacks the power to ignore or set aside the decision of the Federal High Court. Also for you to subpoena a witness, you must situate the witness within a petition. INEC cannot claim that they monitored Abia Labour Congress when in actual fact, there was no congress to be monitored
These and many other grounds which are still available for legal scrutiny at the Appeal Court and the Supreme Court is the reason why the premature gyrations of Alex Otti is a sign of deliberate amnesia.
Judgements are not supposed to be transactional. However, it’s unfortunate that certain judicial pronouncements which often collapse when subjected to dispassionate legal scrutiny have become common place in our clime.
Unexplainable, politically motivated judgements dent the judiciary and whenever the dispensation of justice is colored by pecuniary interests. It certainly spells doom not just for our hallowed judiciary but for the entire society.
…to be continued.
Chikamnayo, former Information Commissioner, writes from Aba
“He is running in contempt of the court. Justice Lifu should be arrested because he is acting in contempt of the court which is a criminal act,” were the exact words with which the African Democratic Congress (ADC), demonstrated its angst over the court ruling on Monday, ordering its de-registration as a political party in Nigeria.
A furious Bolaji Abdullahi, spokesman of the party, told his host while appearing as a guest on Monday’s edition of Politics Today, a public affairs programme on Channels Television that the judge of the Abuja Federal High Court who gave the order was actually playing with fire because of the consequences.
Directly accusing him of playing the script of the All Progressives Congress (APC), to ensure that President Bola Tinubu emerged the sole candidate for the 2027 presidential election, the party spokesman, was emphatic that the plan would not work, as head or tail, ADC must be on the ballot in all the elections.
Hear him: “There is a Court of Appeal order saying don’t hear this case until October 27. So, on what basis? You can’t place something on nothing. The Court of Appeal said don’t act on this until I hear it on October 27. So, on what basis did he deliver the judgement
“So, for us in the African Democratic Congress, what we’re convinced and they know is what they have done has no leg to stand on legally. What they want to do is to create doubts in the minds of the people that this ADC has too many legal cases, can we actually run on this? And to distract us. But we’re not distracted.
“We’re very clear. It was in spite of all they have done since ADC came on board that we ran one of the best and one of the most comprehensive direct primaries in the history of democracy in Nigeria. So, we are strong enough to withstand this. And that’s why I’m saying that we are going to contest in 2027. We’re ADC. We don’t buckle before dictatorship.”
Stressing on the implication of the judgement, which also affected Accord Party (AP), Action Peoples Party (APP), Action Alliance (AA), and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) for allegedly failing to meet constitutional and electoral performance requirements, following a suit by the National Forum of Former Legislators, he said it portended grave danger.
He added: “We are not surprised. We know that the Nigerian people believe that there is a problem with the judiciary, but what we did not expect is the level of judicial rascality that was demonstrated today.
“What we are saying is that we reject it in its totality, and we are saying that the people behind this are playing with fire. Hundreds, if not thousands, have obtained nomination forms and contested elections and emerged as candidates on the platform of the ADC.”
Peter Obi, candidate of the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC), in the 2027 presidential election, is peeved at the decision of the Federal High Court, Abuja, ordering the de-registration of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), saying the move is a heavy blow and dangerous to Nigeria’s democracy.
Justice Peter Lifu, who made the order, based on an action brought by National Forum of Former Legislators, agreed that the parties, including Accord Party (AP), Action Peoples Party (APP), Action Alliance (AA), and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), failed to meet the requirement for continued existence in Nigeria.
But Obi, who left the ADC coalition to join the NDC, incidentally, based on what he explained resulted from the multiple court cases hanging on its neck, expressed his disenchantment, in a statement by the Peter Obi Media Reach (POMR), on Monday.
Signed by Ibrahim Umar, its spokesman, the group quoted the former Governor of Anambra State as decrying the growing damage to the nation’s sacred institutions on the altar of politics.
Stressing that the rise of nations depended on stronger institutions devoid of political influences, the 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate, wrote on his X platform: “When the controversy surrounding the removal of the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, unfolded, I expressed a concern to a friend: that the greatest damage might not be immediate, but the message it sends about the sanctity and independence of our institutions to the world.
“Strong economies are built on trust. Investors can manage security risks, policy risks, and even market risks. What they fear most is uncertainty in the rule of law and a judiciary that is perceived to be vulnerable to political pressure.
“Today, many Nigerians have lost confidence in systems that should protect them. Businesses increasingly request that their contracts be governed by foreign jurisdictions because they have greater confidence in those institutions than in our own. That should concern every patriot.
“We must never sacrifice our sacred institutions on the altar of politics. Nations rise when institutions are stronger than individuals. The Federal High Court judgment ordering the deregistration of the ADC and other political parties is just one of those activities that further reduces the common man’s trust in our legal systems. It should be reversed.
“I pledge that we will restore the dignity, independence, and integrity of the judiciary. The common man must have a voice. The business community must be protected from legal uncertainty and intimidation. Justice must be impartial, accessible, and respected by all. To our judges, legal luminaries, senior advocates, and lawyers: this is your moment. Rise, defend the rule of law, take back your country! A new Nigeria is POssible.”
Not even Lamine Yamal’s second half introduction could help Spain break through the defence of debutants, Cape Verde, in their first ever meeting, as the ongoing World Cup event produced another one of the stunning results on Monday.
Yamal, the Barcelona superstar just recovering from a near two-month hamstring injury, was brought into the game in the second half to zest up the one-time world champion, but failed to break down the Cape Verde’s dogged defence.
Spain’s in the game played in Atlanta, one of the cities hosting the three-nation Mundial, displayed the same dismal outing, which saw them offering far less than the quality, which saw them lifting the trophy for the first time in 2010.
The European champions, which have not won a knockout game ever since, failed to dominate the African side, replicating their less than impressing outings and their eventual exit in 2018 and 2022 editions, even with the claims of coach Luis de la Fuente that the squad was the best in the competition, Spain were considered among the pre-tournament.
Neither Yamal nor Nico Williams, who also was hit by an injury-disrupted season at Athletic Bilbao and was not introduced until the 87th minute, were able to rise to the occasion against the 500,000 people African side, ranked 67 in the world, which is making their debut on the global stage.
In stark contrast to the searing temperatures faced by some other sides, Atlanta’s state-of-the-art air conditioned stadium meant there was no excuses for the slow tempo of Spain’s build-up.
Indeed the mid-half hydration break was met by boos with fans frustrated at the break in play despite the cool conditions.
The only serious move from the European champions only came at the sixth minute to half-time, when Marc Cucurella, fresh for sealing his move from Chelsea to Real Madrid, sent over a teasing cross that Ferran Torres turned onto the crossbar and Cabo Verde goalkeeper Vozinha got back on his feet to turn Mikel Oyarzabal’s looping header over the bar.
Even after the break, the Blue Sharks, were also able to hold back from the onslaught as they did in the first half, where Vozinho, managed to make another superlative save against Aymeric Laporte’s header just before half-time.
Despite the excitement from the crowd after he was introduced, Yamal, billed as one of the stars of the tournament, failed to create any magic with his first touch being the set-up of a decent opening for fellow substitute Mikel Merino which was too close to Vozinha.
In fact, Cabo Verde billed to take on Uruguay in Miami, nearly snatched a famous victory in the final minute of the 90 when Dani Borges planted a header too close to Unai Simon, who saved the occasion, to prevent the former world champions, billed to face Saudi Arabia in Atlanta on Sunday from humiliation.
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