Why Buhari, CJN AND APC CECPC MUST PREVENT 'FIXING' OF EDO ELECTION SUITS

 Why Buhari, CJN and APC CECPC must Prevent ‘Fixing’ of Edo Election Suits

By Sebastine Ebhuomhan

President Muhammadu Buhari led the emergency meeting of National Executive Committee (NEC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the State House on Tuesday.

The virtual meeting had Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Senate President Ahmad Lawan; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Right Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila; APC-elected state governors and other leaders in attendance.

The National Chairman of the APC Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) and Governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni, had late last month scheduled the meeting to review the party’s positions on issues challenging the party’s unity.

The meeting ratified five resolutions to refocus APC on unity and sound leadership. The NEC empowered and extended the CECPC’s tenure by six months; granted waivers to new members; expelled its former national vice chairman for not exploring internal mechanisms to resolve dispute; dissolved party organs at polling unit, ward, local government, state, zone and national levels; and flayed PDP’s call on Buhari to resign.

Buhari restated, “There should be no debate about the fact that we all want to have a united leadership for our party, APC, at all levels. We need such leaders to be able to manage big challenges that always come with elections.”

The dissolution and swearing-in of Col. David Imuse (rtd.) as Edo State APC Caretaker Chairman in Abuja last Friday got members dancing jubilantly in Benin. Then, the dismissal of Obaseki and People’s Democratic Party (PDP)’s suit against APC running mate, Mallam Gani Audu, on Monday set Edo North agog. Imuse represents a paradigm shift while Audu is a young chip of the old block.

While Edo people congratulate Imuse and Audu, the dissolution brought factional APC politics that Governor Godwin Obaseki and PDP exploited to impose a Man Friday, Anselm Ojezua (ex-APC mango-tree leader in the day and PDP caucus leader in the night) on APC so as to help achieve Obaseki’s agenda against Edo APC and his benefactor Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, before and after Obaseki’s exit from APC.

The NEC decision to dissolve all party structures and appoint a caretaker chairman for Edo APC could not have come at a better time than now when post-election petitions and pre-election litigations are being pursued simultaneously in Benin and Abuja. For this reason, many hailed the dissolution and swearing-in as important decisions in the battle to reclaim Edo State from the grip of a rapacious, ostentatious and spendthrift PDP, which specialises in producing comedy.

After the admission by PDP of “an error,” errors actually, in Obaseki’s certificates at the tribunal last month, the Federal High Court, Abuja, on 2nd December, 2020, dismissed the motion filed by the governor to stop his trial on allegations of perjury and forgery of certificates in suit FHC/B/CS/74/2020. The court also directed an accelerated trial. But that is yet to be achieved as at today, in spite of PDP’s shameful admission, because Obaseki is seeking to run away from trial or, at best, delay his trial indefinitely.

Obaseki and his deputy, Philip Shaibu, are now over-burdened by the weight of the inherent crimes in the two suits before the FCT Division of Federal High Court in Abuja, forensically seeking to examine Obaseki and Shaibu’s fictitious educational certificates and fraudulent claims on oath.

In the first suit, APC candidate and claimant, Pastor Andrew Osagie Ize-Iyamu, accused Obaseki of forging his university certificate for the election. He also stated that there are discrepancies in the subject Obaseki claimed he passed in his West African Examination Council exam. Last month, the court dismissed Obaseki’s attempt to stop the trial. His second attempt to adjourn trial sine die on the basis of an appeal at appellate court against the dismissal awaits ruling today, Tuesday, 15th December.

The suit is sui generis (uniquely bound by time) with a lifespan of 180 days that terminates on January 13, 2021. This is the more reason Obaseki is seeking to ‘fix’ the case and delay it perpetually. This has presented a dilemma, as lawyers have opined, of either delivering Substantial Justice over Technical Law or delivering technicality or justice. But the Supreme Court is clear that where both conflicts, Substantial Justice takes pre-eminence.

It is now clear as crystal that the governor won election with fake certificates. Notorious for pride, arrogance, prevarication, greed and ingratitude, he is rather sending emissaries to APC leaders he dealt wicked blows instead of showing his certificates to judges.

As expectations rise of what his anticipated trial and his deputy’s for perjury and forgery portend, governance has glided to a halt in Edo State; seized by pervasive fear, confusion and disorganization that pushed the announcement halting all political appointments until February 2021 after Obaseki confirmed the reappointment of Edo Government Secretary, Mr Osarodion Ogie, last month. Suspicion and wrangling between leaders of Edo PDP currently underline the directive with increasing threats of violence.

President Buhari, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, the CECPC and all APC members must pay attention to the trending rumour of a secret effort being made to ‘fix’ or scuttle Edo pre-election cases with blackmail, technicality and money by those who are bound to suffer irreparable damages from an APC victory. Mr President must not acquiesce to the planned defection of a mandate robber and beneficiary of Electoral Act breaches. There is no better legacy from the Buni-led Caretaker Committee than legally handing Edo State back to APC before the end of its tenure next June.

Pastor Ize-Iyamu’s confidence in the ability of the judiciary and integrity of Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed to deliver justice to the suits remain unshaken. He has always reiterated his belief. Democrats in Edo State share his sentiment.

Democracy is more than election. Election is more than the act of voting. Election is regulated by laws that candidates must obey. When such laws are infringed, justice usually take its course. Edo State deserves more than forgers and perjurers as leaders.

Sebastine EBHUOMHAN is a multiple award-winning journalist from Edo State resident in Abuja. He can be reached at: usie007@yahoo.com; 08037204620; Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.