Posted by By FRANCIS AWOWOLE-BROWNE, Abuja, IKE NNAMDI, Washington DC on
Former Anambra State governor, Dr. Chris Ngige on Thursday became the biggest casualty in the screening of candidates by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as his name was not among the 477 cleared by the electoral body.
• Iwu playing with jail - Atiku
Former Anambra State governor, Dr. Chris Ngige on Thursday became the biggest casualty in the screening of candidates by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as his name was not among the 477 cleared by the electoral body. Ngige was to contest the April governorship election on the platform of the Action Congress (AC).
Also, the name of the incumbent governor, Mr. Peter Obi, who is a member of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), was missing on the list.
This is coming at a time the chairman of INEC, Prof Maurice Iwu insisted that the commission's position that Vice President Atiku Abubakar will not participate in the presidential election has not changed.
In the list of candidates released by INEC, the candidate of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) in Abia State, Chief T. A. Orji, was cleared to contest the April election.
A breakdown of the list shows that Lagos State tops with the highest number of candidates as 23 are contesting for the office of governor. Gombe and Kebbi states have the least number of candidates, with eight each. Lagos was followed by Kwara State, which has 19 contestants. Abia, Enugu and Rivers have 18 cleared governorship candidates each. Akwa Ibom has 10, Adamawa, 12; Anambra, 14; Bauchi, 10; Bayelsa, 12; Benue, 13; Borno 10 and Cross River 10.
Others are Delta, 13; Ebonyi, 15; Edo, 10; Ekiti, 13; Imo, 16; Jigawa, 9; Kaduna, 17; Kano, 16; Katsina, 11; Kogi, 15; Nasarawa, 11; Niger, 11; Ogun, 17; Ondo, 13; Osun, 14; Oyo, 15; Plateau, 12; Sokoto, 10; Taraba, 12; Yobe, 10 and Zamfara 14.
Among the 477 candidates, there are 10 female, with Benue accounting for three of them.
On why Dr. Ngige was not cleared, Prof. Iwu said that the law stipulates that candidates swear to affidavit in court but that as at the time of nominations INEC did not receive the former governor's papers. He said also that Ngige did not come for verification.
Iwu stated that Ngige's case was different from that of Governor Obi, who he said could not be substituted for Anambra State's Deputy Governor, Dame Virgy Etiaba, who voluntarily withdrew from the race. He said that APGA was, however, caught in the web of court injunctions, which was why the party has no candidate, even though Etiaba's name and that of deputy governorship candidate appeared on the list of cleared candidates released on Thursday.
He said that INEC had recognized Chief Victor Umeh as the chairman of APGA until August 6, 2006 when a court order barred INEC from continuous recognition of the Chief Umeh faction of the party. He said that as a law abiding agency, INEC has obeyed all court rulings and would continue to do so.
He said that the INEC could not provide the list of candidates for state's Houses of Assembly as it was too voluminous. He referred the interested members of the public to the commission's web site.
Meanwhile, INEC said that the vice president stands disqualified on account of his indictment by an administrative panel of inquiry, which probed his administration of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), the report of which had been gazetted by government.
Professor Iwu, who reacted to the court ruling on the suit filed by Atiku that his commission lacked power to disqualify candidate, stated that the court had only affirmed the INEC position that its job was to verify and that only the constitution and the law court could disqualify candidates, saying that in the present circumstances involving Atiku, such was the stand of the INEC.
Said he: "May I emphasize that the list does not guarantee that if your name is in the list and you are found wanting by a court of law that you will still contest election. Names can be removed but cannot be substituted.
"It means that if you are also found guilty by a tribunal or indicted and such indictment is accepted by the government as stipulated by the constitution, it means you can still be removed from the list but the danger here is that no room for substitution, that is constitutional provision and not INEC. The time for substitution is over and we can't substitute any name found defective after this stage," he said.
He explained that the court ruling in Atiku's case had only vindicated his commission, noting that the vice president sought for six reliefs but only one was granted relating to the fact that INEC had no power to disqualify, adding that among the five reliefs which were denied the AC presidential candidate was the provision that INEC has power to verify the documents and claims brought forward by the candidates.
Professor Iwu said the relief granted was in tandem with INEC's position, adding: "We have maintained consistently that we don't disqualify candidates and that only the constitution and court can disqualify. The court even said that the relief granted is only to the extent that the defendant has no power under the constitution to disqualify candidates."
When asked to say, in clear terms, the implication of the court ruling on the INEC position on Atiku, the INEC boss said all will soon know the implication.
Meanwhile, the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organization has accused the INEC of being a part of a plot to scuttle next month's elections through a contrived crisis in order to pave the way for President Olusegun Obasanjo to perpetuate himself in power.
The campaign organization was reacting to the pronouncement by INEC chairman to the effect that with or without a court judgment, Atiku still remained barred from the presidential elections.
It warned Iwu that it would not hesitate to drag him before a judge for deliberately disobeying Wednesday's court order barring the INEC from disqualifying any candidate presented by a political party in the coming elections.
Said the campaign organization: "The decision of the government to bar anyone from the elections, contrary to a clear pronouncement on the matter by a law court, which is recognized by the constitution, is an open confession that the rule of law no longer exists in Nigeria.
"The campaign organization and all right thinking Nigerians would continue to insist that these elections must hold in accordance with the law and that Obasanjo must leave office on May 29, 2007 at the end of his term of office.
"We restate, for the umpteenth time, indeed, as has been done by the Federal High Court on Wednesday, March 7th, that INEC does not have the power to disqualify any candidate. For Iwu to claim that it is the constitution, not INEC, that has disqualified Atiku is a display of gross ignorance of the law, deliberate fraud and mischief.
"The Atiku Campaign would like to remind INEC that under the Nigerian constitution, it is the court that is saddled with the responsibilities of interpreting the laws. No institution of government can exempt itself from the due process of the law. The essence of the Federal High Court judgment in the suit ‘Action Congress and Atiku Abubakar (Plaintiff) versus Independent National Electoral Commission (Defendant)' is that only the court can disqualify a candidate.
The court has ruled that (INEC) has no power to disqualify candidates under the provisions of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, and the Electoral Act 2006 and the power to disqualify any candidate sponsored by any political party from contesting an election is vested in the courts as provided for in section 32(5) of the Electoral Act 2006 and in any other legislation that is validly enacted in that behalf. If anyone believes that a candidate is not eligible for election, the right thing for him or her is to approach the court and only a court can so sanction.
"Atiku remains the Action Congress's presidential candidate in this election. He will not be forced out through arbitrariness and reckless disregard of the law. We have a declaratory judgment stating, in clear and unambiguous terms, what the law says on the matter. Nobody can disqualify the vice president without a just cause. If INEC or anyone is dissatisfied with the judgment, it should appeal.
"We call on well-meaning Nigerians, the civil society and the international community to call this government to order before it plunges the country into needless and totally unnecessary crisis."
Also, AC's National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said: "It is clear that Iwu has a gross misunderstanding of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and of law in general, otherwise he would have understood that, ab initio, a sitting president, vice president, governor or deputy governor, under the 1999 constitution, is not affected by the provisions of Section 137 of the same constitution. This is because for one to be indicted for fraud or embezzlement, one must have been found guilty of either offences."
According to him, "how do you find guilty somebody, who is protected under Section 308, that is a person who has immunity against arrest or prosecution? How do you find such a person guilty? It is clear therefore, that the entire process of trying to indict Atiku Abubakar or Bola Tinubu or any person in that category is an exercise in futility."
He added that "the same illegal indictment has been challenged by both Otunba Fasawe and Mr. Umar Pariya, and two courts have set aside the entire indictment as not following the rule of law. It should be noted that the two courts, one in Abuja and the other in Lagos did not just say that Otunba Fasawe and Mr. Pariya are not guilty, the court went further to declare null and void the entire administrative panel of enquiry for not following due process.
"It therefore stands to reason that if the same Bayo Ojo panel, which found Atiku ‘guilty' has now been declared illegal, how then can Iwu now say that Atiku still stands indicted? Iwu's dilemma is that he does not know how to report back to his master that the game is up."