Undue confusion in Abia
To have two people each claiming to be the governor of a state, with one brandishing a freshly issued Certificate of Return and insisting on being sworn-in while the other sits tight on the job and says he has a restraining order on the other claimant, is perfect recipe for anarchy. Yet that is exactly what is happening in Abia State following a stream of strange legal, political and bureaucratic events that unfolded in quick succession last week.
It all started last Monday when a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja nullified Mr. Okezie Ikpeazu’s election as Governor of Abia State and ordered him to vacate office immediately. Justice Okon Abang, who delivered the ruling, also asked the Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC] to issue a certificate of return to Dr. Samson Uchechukwu Ogah, who contested the Peoples Democratic Party’s [PDP] governorship primaries in December 2014 and finished a distant second to Ikpeazu.
Abang’s findings against Ikpeazu sounded quite damning. He said Ikpeazu submitted false information to INEC on his tax clearance certificate and income tax receipts and that the documents he submitted “were unknown to the law.” Ikpeazu, Abang ruled, did not file his tax clearance in 2011, 2012 and 2013 and that all payments he made preceding the 2014 primaries were made in one day “and not as and when due.” The first time this phrase crept into public discourse in Nigeria was in 1979 when FEDECO said NPP presidential candidate Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and his PRP counterpart Malam Aminu Kano did not pay their taxes as and when due, as the Electoral Act demanded.
The date on Ikpeazu’s tax receipt, the judge also found, was a Saturday, “which is a public holiday even in Abia State.” Abang also held that Ikpeazu perjured himself, was therefore not qualified to be PDP’s candidate in the primaries and was also not qualified to be a candidate in the 2015 election. He ruled that PDP should have forwarded Ogah as its candidate and, following Supreme Court precedent in the Obi vs. INEC and Amaechi vs. INEC rulings, he made a consequential order for Ogah to be sworn in as Governor of Abia State. He ordered Ikpeazu to vacate office and ordered INEC to issue Ogah with certificate of return.
This was not the first time a state governor was unseated either by an election tribunal in an election matter or by a regular court in a pre-election matter. Since last year’s election alone, three state governors, namely those of Taraba, Rivers and Akwa Ibom states had been removed by election tribunals, only to be restored back to their seats on appeal. Between 2007 and 2010 too, many state governors were removed by election tribunals, notably in Osun, Ondo, Ekiti, Edo and Kebbi. In all cases the incumbents stayed put on the job until the appeal processes were exhausted. In the case of Kebbi, the governor won on appeal but in the four other cases, the incumbents lost on appeal and had to vacate their offices. Nigerians therefore expected that Ikpeazu’s loss at the High Court was only the first step and the last would not be heard until the Supreme Court rules on the matter. This was especially so when Ikpeazu’s lawyers filed a notice of appeal to the Court of Appeal two days later, well within the 21 days deadline he has to do so.
But then, matters took a sudden turn last Thursday when INEC issued Ogah with a Certificate of Return. INEC said it did so in obedience to Justice Abang’s order, which was duly served on it. INEC said it received no order for a stay of execution. Ikpeazu did not say he obtained such an order but that he had served INEC with his notice of appeal as well as request for stay of execution. A notice of appeal may not be an automatic stay of execution but we expected INEC to tarry awhile, knowing that a stay order is very likely to come either from the same court that delivered the ruling or from the Court of Appeal. It is reasonable to expect the Appeal Court to grant a stay because it did so in all previous cases, lest the appeal is grossly undermined by events. For INEC to say it did so because Justice Anang ordered immediate compliance is strange to say the least because the judge too knew that his ruling was not the last word in this matter.
Up to that point Governor Ikpeazu was on good legal and moral grounds but then, he committed a big blunder of his won when he secured an order from a High Court in Abia State to stop the Chief Judge of Abia State, President of the Customary Court of Appeal or any other judicial officer from swearing in Ogah as governor. The order was given by Justice Chibuzo Ahuchaogu. This was a throwback to the dark days of June 12, 1993 when several courts of coordinate jurisdiction issued contradictory orders to NEC. While one court stopped it from announcing the election results, other similar courts ordered it to do so. No one went to the Appeal Court.
As it is now, only the Appeal Court can disentangle this confusion in Abia State and we hope it does so as early as tomorrow, in order to avert a possible break down of law and order. If someone had requested it, the court could even sit at night or on a non-working day to resolve this serious matter. Finally, we urge INEC to reconsider its processes to accommodate the need to preserve the peace. As for Justice Chibuzo Ahuchaogu of the Abia High Court, we commend him to the National Judicial Council [NJC] for exemplary punishment.