Who is Afraid of Soludo?
After travelling from Imo State to Jigawa State to procure court order in their failed bid to stop the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the November 6 governorship election in Anambra State, Prof. Charles Soludo, desperate politicians in the state took their desperation to another level on Wednesday when they hired those described as political thugs to protest against the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in Abuja.
While dismissing the frivolous court orders procured in Imo and Jigawa states, Justice Chioma Nwosu-Ikpeme of the Court of Appeal, Awka Division had accused Anambra politicians of going round the country shopping for judgments to enable them to contest in the November 6 governorship election.
She had also demanded punishment for the judge of the Jigawa State High Court, Justice Ubale of Birnin Kudu, and his counterpart in the Imo State judiciary, Justice B. C. Iheka, for what she described as their unprofessional conduct by dabbling into the Anambra State gubernatorial election controversy.
Not satisfied with the decisions of the courts, which frustrated all their efforts to exclude Soludo from the election, these desperate politicians last Wednesday opted for illegal means by hiring protesters to barricade the National Headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), demanding the exclusion of Soludo from the election.
Many politicians that lack decency have always viewed Anambra politics as cash-and-carry politics that is conducted in a crude manner, otherwise the self-acclaimed National Coordinator of the Anambra Restoration Movement (ARM), a faceless group, Mr. Gabriel Uguru, and the Publicity Secretary, Goodness Chioma, should have known that INEC lacks the powers to disqualify a candidate.
Uguru, Chioma and their sponsors threw caution to the wind and called on the INEC and the federal government to embark on illegality to disqualify Soludo just to pave the way for their candidate.
It is pertinent to note that the brand of politics played by Uguru’s paymasters in Anambra State has cost many judges and an Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) their jobs.
With Justice Nwosu-Ikpeme’s outbursts and the invitation of some judges by the National Judicial Council (NJC), it is obvious that the November 6 election may also claim casualties.
But who is afraid of Soludo and why are they afraid of healthy contest?