LP plans appeal, ACN wants judge probed Supreme Court rules on Sokoto guber polls April 8THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and some opposition parties yesterday took irreconciliable positions on the judgment and decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to go on appeal over the verdict of a Federal High Court, Abuja extending the tenure of five state governors on the platform of the ruling party.While the PDP asked the commission to dump the planned appeal, positing that the electoral umpire has not suffered any injury from the judgement, the opposition political parties led by the Labour Party (LP) and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), said they had resolved to approach the Appeal Court and the National Judicial Council (NJC) for its reversal.In a statement issued by the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Prof. Rufai Ahmed Alkali, the party argued that some judgments had been given against the party in the past without INEC raising eyebrow and wondered why the present show of interest.He said: The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has noted the decision by the INEC to appeal the judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja on tenure of the governors in five states with deep concern.As participants in all electoral programmes organised by INEC, we have always refrained from engaging the electoral umpire in any open confrontation. Rather, we have always explored available channels of communication with them to express our concerns on all issues.However, we are constrained to register our displeasure with statements by some high ranking officials of INEC on the decision to appeal against this ruling. As the umpire in the electoral process, we expect them to demonstrate neutrality and fairness to all. A situation where the electoral umpire becomes an obviously interested party in a dispute involving several other players does not augur well for the integrity of the electoral process. We wonder why officials of INEC never showed the same kind of zeal in cases where judicial decisions were made against the PDP in many states of the federation.The question on the lips of all discerning observers today is on whose behalf is INEC appealing Or what injuries do they stand to suffer from this rulingBut LP yesterday directed its candidates in five states of Adamawa, Bayelsa, Cross River, Kogi, and Sokoto to go ahead with their campaigns despite the court ruling stopping the INEC from conducting gubernatorial elections; the ACN asked the NJC to probe Justice Adamu Bello over the controversial verdict.Also yesterday, the Supreme Court fixed April 8 for deciding on whether or not to set aside its order dismissing the appeal lodged by a Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) governorship candidate in Sokoto State, Muhammadu Maigari Dingyadi at the Sokoto Division of the Court of Appeal.The apex court had on November 26, 2010 in its verdict on an interlocutory appeal on the states gubernatorial dispute, aborted Dingyadis appeal, which was slated for judgment by the Appeal Court in controversial circumstance and made even more disturbing by the recent affidavit evidence made by the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Isa Salami.The LP said yesterday in Abuja that it would appeal the ruling and that its candidates in the five states had been notified via a directive through its state secretariats to go ahead with their campaigns and ignore the ruling because it will soon be vacated.Bello had ordered INEC to exclude the five states from the April governorship elections because their governors participated in re-run elections and won them at different dates in 2008 and therefore their tenure would not lapse on May 29. LP National Chairman, Chief Dan Nwayanwu contended that an appeal against the judgment would sail through because the intention of the constitution was not to reward any single individual to stay beyond four years for a tenure without subjecting himself to another election.He said: This is one judgment that defies all logic, common sense, legality, equity and justice. We have asked our candidates in the states to intensify their campaign. We have no doubt that the judgment would be vacated. The intention of the lawmakers has nothing to do with whether or not an occupier of the office of the governor decides on his own to take oath of office and allegiance for as many times as suits him. The totality of intendment of the lawmakers as provided for in section 180 sub Section 2 of the constitution is to the effect that no single person can stay in office as governor for more than four years without subjecting himself to re-election.Nwayanwu, who is also a lawyer, argued that a process faulted as fraudulent which gave rise for the nullification of the election and re-run could not be turned to a reward for those who should leave office by May 29, 2011.This black market arrangement by the governors must fail. If they like, let them open the vault of their states to fight this course but they must be assured that evil will never triumph over good and darkness can never take pre-eminence over light. They had four years to deliver on their promise but they blew the opportunity away and are now looking for short cut to perpetrate themselves in office. Shame on them. They have already failed, he stated.In its reaction, the Adamawa State chapter of ACN called on the NJC to probe Bello over his controversial judgment on the tenure elongation for the five governors.The state secretary of the party, Mathias Yohanna told reporters yesterday in Yola that the judgment could destroy democracy in the country, adding that it was in the interest of a few individuals.The Action Congress of Nigeria with other registered political parties and indeed supporters and lovers of democracy in Nigeria are worried with the timing and target of the judgment at this crucial moment of INECs preparations for the April general elections, he stated.The partys spokesman said the judgment raised a lot of legal and moral questions on the popular will of the people, insisting that his party would join INEC to appeal against the judgment.Yohanna, a former commissioner in the Boni Harunas government urged the ACN supporters in the state to remain calm and law abiding, pointing out that the judgment cannot distract the partys campaign programmes.In the Sokoto guber saga, Salami had averred that the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Aloysius Iyorgher Katsina-Alu had asked him to pervert justice in the dispute, seemingly culminating into the apex court dismissing an appeal at the state division of the appellate court and that was never before it on the premise that it was an abuse of judicial process.In an apparent attempt to resuscitate his gubernatorial dream, Dingyadi, in an application filed by his counsel, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) has prayed the apex court to set aside that part of its decision on the ground that it lacks the jurisdiction to make it.When the matter came up yesterday, counsel to Dingyadi, Chief Akinlolu Olujimi (SAN) prayed the court to reverse its dismissal of the appeal in Sokoto on the contention that it lacked the jurisdiction to interfere in an electoral dispute which was not before it but pending before a Court of Appeal.But counsel to the respondents, Dr. Alex Aigbe Izinyon (SAN), Yahaya Mahmoud and Oladapo Olanipekun urged the court to dismiss the application and sustain its decision on the Sokoto appeal.Meanwhile, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in Kogi State has reiterated its commitment to intensify political campaign into various offices, including the gubernatorial in spite of a subsisting court order elongating the tenure of Governor Ibrahim Idris till March 2012.This is also as the main opponent of Senator Smart Adeyemi in the senatorial primaries of the PDP in Kogi West District, Chief Tolorunjuwon Joseph Faniyi , in a last minute decision, apparently to beat INEC deadline for substitution, picked the CPC ticket for the zone to set the stage for another round of battle between the two rivals.It is not clear how Faniyis action would affect the on going legal action he instituted at the Federal High Court, Abuja contesting the authenticity of Adeyemis victory at the primaries.
Click here to read full news..
