The recent Owerri Court of Appeal Judgment on the Abia State Governorship Elections, if allowed to stand (God Forbid), will send a very dangerous message to politicians in Nigeria: You do not need to bother winning the popular vote during the elections. Just contest and the seat can always be awarded to you by the courts.
The process of electioneering, campaigns and voting is and must remain the only avenue through which elective political office is attainable in Nigeria.
In the famous Amaechi Vs Omehia case of 2007, Hon. Justice George Oguntade of the Supreme Court declared Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi as the duly elected Governor of Rivers State. Amaechi was never on the ballot paper for the elections. He neither campaigned nor was he voted for.
The Supreme Court, in its wisdom, held that the mandate belonged to the political party and having determined that Rotimi Amaechi was the rightful candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party that won the 2007 Governorship Elections in Rivers State, it ordered that he be sworn in as Governor.
That singular judgment led to the amendment of our Electoral Act and the inclusion of a Sub-Section which holds that no individual shall be deemed to have won an election if he did not stand for election into that particular office in Nigeria. Effectively, the Amaechi Judgment-precedent was rendered redundant in our Laws and it can no longer be cited in any case.
What the National Assembly has corrected by the Amendment to the Electoral Act after the Amaechi case, the Court of Appeal, Owerri Division is seeking to reintroduce via another means in the Abia Governorship election dispute.
Here is a man, Mazi Alex Otti who cannot in his wildest hallucinations, claim to have won the Abia State Governorship Elections being thrown up by the Court of Appeal as the winner of the elections via some arithmetical abracadabra and an attempt to redraw the map of Abia State by using votes from 14 LGAs to declare a man winner of Governorship elections in a state with 17 LGAs.
As of this moment, the All Progressives Grand Alliance can only boast of 1 Member of the House of Representatives out of the available 11 Seats up for grabs in the National Assembly elections and 6 Members of the Abia State House of Assembly in a 24-Member House. The electoral heists of 5 of the members erroneously declared as winners earlier on have been nullified by the Courts.
From Isuikwuato to Umuahia South, Arochukwu to Aba North and beyond, those masquerading as Members of the House of Assembly representing those Constituencies on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) have been shown the Red Card as it has been established that they never won their purported elections.
So the question then becomes, if APGA can only lay claim to 7 out of 35 available Legislative Seats contested for in Abia State (note that some of the opponents of these 7 did not bother going to the Tribunal. Who knows what would have happened?), where then did they get the majority votes to return their Governorship candidate Mazi Alex Otti as winner of an election that held the same day and at the same time?
The truth remains that there is just no way Mazi Alex Otti could have won the Governorship seat in Abia State and I dare say that he knows that fact very incontrovertibly.
This is why he is showing this level of desperation to get, via other means, what he is unable to get through the ballot box in Abia State. This is why he is trying to set a precedent by being the reference point of a politician who does not need to win an election but is sure of getting into office via other means. This is almost the civilian equivalent of a Coup de Etat. IT WILL NOT HAPPEN!
Those given to conspiracy theories have pointed out brazen and desperate moves that Mazi Otti have made since before the elections to form alliances with whoever is willing in other for him to get into office as Governor. In recent times, he has been seen at Thanksgiving Services of parties other than his supposed political party, he has been seen around certain individuals with close links to power brokers at the centre, all to what end? That he be assisted to become Governor of Abia State.
He has run with the hares and hunted with the wolves. He has shown that he is not averse to dining with the devil to get what he is looking for. I ask again, what is the purpose of this desperation if indeed the purpose of seeking office is to serve the people? Why are you trying so hard to impose yourself on the people you claim you want to serve? Clearly, service is the last item on your agenda if it is there at all.
The Court of Appeal alluded to the number of votes recorded for Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu at Obingwa, Osisioma and Isialangwa North being higher than the number of votes captured and transmitted to INEC Office in Umuahia by the Card Reader Machine hence the talk of overvoting. The question then becomes: What happened to manual accreditation where the Card Reader fails?
Was it not part of INEC Guidelines? Why did INEC provide Incident Forms? Was it only in Obingwa, Osisioma and Isialangwa North that we got more votes than the Card Reader recorded? What about Aba North and Aba South? What about Arochukwu and Ohafia? Manual accreditation was done in these areas too. Why were they accepted and Obingwa, Osisioma and Isialangwa North rejected? Questions, questions, few answers.
Thankfully, Abians have since risen up to condemn the Judgment of the Court of Appeal in unison. From Aba to Umuahia, Nkpa to Nkporo, it has been a continuous procession of peaceful protesters who are saying one thing: You cannot force a leader on us.
This has gone beyond a mere electoral dispute. It has become a unified statement by a people that they cannot be disenfranchised in a State where they are bonafide citizens and residents. How do you tell over 300,000 people belonging to a homogenous ethnic and language grouping that you do not need their votes to determine who governs their state?
Of one thing I am confident, this shall not stand. Ogagi eme eme. We wait and see!
Udo diri unu.
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Opinion article written by Sam Hart
