Posted by From Amby Uneze in Calabar on
The judgment delivered by the Anambra State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal recently in Awka, the state capital in favour of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) Governorship candidate, Mr. Peter Obi has been described as a farce that was not based on evidence before the tribunal.
The judgment delivered by the Anambra State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal recently in Awka, the state capital in favour of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) Governorship candidate, Mr. Peter Obi has been described as a farce that was not based on evidence before the tribunal.
Delivering the judgment that Friday, the tribunal which unanimously declared Obi the winner of the April 19, 2003 governorship election in Anambra State cited evidences before it and concluded that results of the election showed that the APGA candidate won the election.
Reacting to the judgment in an exclusive interview with THISDAY in Calabar, an Ohaneze chieftain, Dr. Emeka Ilonuo said that since the evidences before the tribunal were conflicting, it should have been proper for the tribunal members to call for a re-election instead of giving the ruling to the petitioner.
According to him, 'the judgment of the tribunal members was farce. The evidences before them could not give a real victory because they should have considered whether the evidences were facts or not.
'Definitely it can not be the fact. Why do I say so? You see, INEC (Independent national Electoral Commission) brought a result and said this is what we tendered. Peter Obi brought his own and said this is what was given to me at the point of election by INEC and they are different.
'You know evidences were brought from different people, more than 400 people, showing that what actually happened was a farce, it wasn't an election.So how can you use those things and declare one person the winner? If you are being fair, you wouldn't declare a winner. Although I still believe that the members of the tribunal had their hands tied, otherwise they would have based their judgment on what they had seen, not basing their judgment on hearsay". Ilonuo added that if you look at it from a different angle, you would observe that there was no proper election held in Anambra State, hence the election would have been outrightly cancelled instead of declaring one person the winner." He stressed that if that was the case, it then means that the judges must have erred in law.
The Ohaneze chieftain, who was also the immediate past president of Igbo community in Calabar adduced that the best thing to do would have been to order a new election in Anambra State, since INEC the umpire showed was perceived as unjust, gave different results in the same election.
The medical director reminded the tribunal members of the previous cases they handled in the same election which had the precedent of having recalled some people from the state House of Assembly and the National Assembly, pointing out that if such was the case, then the whole elections including that of the President should have been upturned.
'I call for re-election because the judgment was a complete farce. Evidences provided proved it. There is no need trying to play angel. All the evidences before the tribunal were all conflicting, no matter how you try to play the angels, there the whole matter is there for everybody to see. The judges were only trying to cause confusion in the whole system. If INEC, the umpire showed contradicting evidence, then the only thing to do would have been to call for re-election", Ilonuo observed.
He advised Obi to help the Anambra people by not igniting the whole system and allow Ngige to finish his term since it would not be of interest to anybody if the state boils again, considering the fact the Ngige has done well for the people of Anambra, especially in terms of provision of infrastructures and other developmental projects.