Posted by The Port Harcourt Telegraph on
Gubernatorial flag bearer of the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, Chief Sergeant Awuse is expected to step into the courtroom this week.
Gubernatorial flag bearer of the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, Chief Sergeant Awuse is expected to step into the courtroom this week.
This is authoritative.
Awuse is not an accused person. Rather, he is the plaintiff in a matter involving Governor Peter Odili and the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC.
Awuse and his lawyers had immediately returned to the Appeal Court as soon as the reconstituted tribunal came out with a verdict upholding Odili's victory at the polls.
Hope had risen in Awuse's camp shortly after the Appeal Court held that the reliance on the use of technicalities by the first elections tribunal that heard the petition had robbed the ANPP gubernatorial candidate of a fair hearing.
It ordered that another panel be set up to retry the matter.
After the tribunal heard evidence on the matter, it held Awuse had not done enough to overturn the election results that the Independent Electoral Commission had entered in favour of Odili and the PDP.
Thus far, the top flight politician and political bulldozer of Rivers politics remains indignant.
Awuse insists he was the one who legitimately won the race and that is the subject that the Appeal Court would be faced with this week, when it rules.
It has taken Awuse months to get to this stage after filing papers of appeal. But in December 2004, the court heard the arguments of lawyers.
Many here have. almost forgotten Odili's victory is the subject of a legal tangle. But with the signs here at last that the court is set to deliver judgment, lawyers and what is left of the Rivers opposition are looking forward to what the ruling might be.
Among Awuse's supporters, victory in the courtroom is not much the issue.
The issue, they say, is that they went the whole hog to state their case. Besides, they say, it would be proof of the fact that their candidate did not sell out. Like one of them said, "He is already on the floor need not fear any fall". It may well be so