Abia Tribunal: Issues Arising From The Judgement
Part One.
By Eze Chikamnayo.
On Friday, the 6th day of October, 2023, the reconstituted Governorship Tribunal that ossicilated between Government House – Hotel Damgrette and the Court delivered it’s very predictable and widely considered “Perverse ” Verdict in favour of their host, Mr Alex Otti.
Now, that we are happily done with that unfortunate episode, let’s quickly examine some of the real issues brought before the Tribunal which can neither be swept away nor sacrilegiously sacrificed in the alter of brickmanship.
First, it is not the intendment of the Law that the Law should give with one hand and also take away with the other hand.
The Electoral Act clearly provided for Witnesses to be Supeoned and those witnesses can only be Supeoned during the course of the Tribunal Trial, that’s after the petitioner has filled his petition.
The Law did not contemplate and could not have contemplated a situation whereby witnesses of the adverse Party would willingly depose to Statements of Oath for Petitioners – to have enabled them file same along with their Petition at the time of filling.
The above absurd and impossible scenario is what the Trial Tribunal held in their curious Judgement which is clearly to every discerning legal mind an irrefutable error.
Ordinarily, once the final results of an Election is declared , a Party has just 21 days from the time of the declaration of Results to file his Petition.
The question which the Tribunal failed to answer is whether a Petitioner can get a Tribunal which hasn’t started sitting to issue a Supeonea on an adverse witness or Party to compel such witness to make depositions for frontloading?
For instance, in the Abia Gubernatorial Elections case , INEC is the 1st Respondent in the Petition. There’s therefore no way PDP or Chief Ahiwe would have gotten the Tribunal to issue a Supeonea to get INEC to depose, sign and do all the administrative routine of the Supeonea and hand it over to PDP to enable them to file ( all within 21 days) when the Tribunal is yet to start sitting. That is not possible.
The Tribunal Judges very well know that a Supeonea is a document used to COMPEL witnesses to come to Court- whether recalcitrant witnesses or those who refuse to come UNLESS COMPELLED BY LAW.
The PDP and Chief Ahiwe took advantage of this provision of the Law and brought the INEC Witnesses to Court yet the Court unexplainably ruled that such witnesses should have been brought to depose at the time of filling!
By the wrongful exclusion of the official witnesses who came on Supeonea, the Tribunal willfully denied itself the benefit of their evidence both documentary and oral and in so doing, the Petitioners were denied the benefits accruable from those evidence which inadvertently has evidently occasioned a glaring miscarriage of Justice for which there should be an Appeal.
Sadly, it is for such perplexing ground above that those who believe that tremendous amount of water has passed under the bridge in this Otti matter are predicating their position. This is a very sad story for the Judiciary.
Another area of Interest is what transpired regarding the Kano Judgement which co-incidentally was put in evidence by Alex Otti and the Labour Party as Respondents – they were the ones that initialled that particular angle.
As we speak, there is in existence, a Judgement in rem and in personna and subsisting to the effect that Candidates of Labour Party were disqualified and that they had none for the Elections.
Mr Alex Otti as shown by him as the Second Respondent intrestingly made efforts to Appeal against the Kano Judgement in order to be hurriedly sworn in as Governor.
But that particular Appeal is no longer subsisting by virtue of the operation of the Constitution and that leaves us only with the Judgement of the Federal High Court Kano.
Invariably, the fact is that before the Law, Mr Alex Otti was not even a Candidate during the Gubernatorial Elections for Abia State held on the 18th of March.
That is the irrefutable effect of the subsisting Judgement of the Federal High Court Kano which remains and will continue to remain subsisting since the Constitutional window created for it’s Appeal has forever elapsed .
In their decision, the Abia Gubernatorial Elections Tribunal again apparently glossed over the grave implication of the Kano Judgement whereas they are supposed to have given effect to that Judgement which is subsisting. Moreso since that is the cardinal ground in contention which is that Mr Alex Otti was at the time of the Elections not qualified .
Remember that the said the particular matter that resulted in the Judgement of the Federal High Court Kano was initiated even before the election so it is a pre- election matter; already pending at the time.
The Tribunal ought to have correctly given effect to that subsisting Judgement against which there is not and can never be an Appeal again because Constitutionally the time allowed for any Appeal on the matter has expired.
Thirdly, The Electoral Act provided for declaration of Results at different levels insitu, that is wherever that level of Election or Collation took place.
If Election takes place in the Unit, it MUST be DECLARED there. Then the result must be taken to the Ward Collation Center and it MUST be Collated there. Thereafter, the Collated Ward Results must be taken to the LGA Collation Center where they will again be Collated and also ANNOUNCED and DECLARED.
In the case of Obingwa Local Government, when the results which has duly passed through the Unit, Ward and LGA Collation Stages, were now brought to the final / State Collation Center at Umuahia , the canterkerous Returning Officer, one Mrs Nnenna Otti, for reasons best known to her, contrary to the provisions of the Law decided that she wasn’t going to use the results ALREADY DECLARED AND ANNOUNCED IN OBINGWA LGA in the final Collation at the State Level.
She then brazenly took away the Results to Abuja to be “RECOLLATED” ostensibly because she’s not comfortable with the outcome.
This illegal, hide and seek moves she did without notice to the political Parties again contrary to the clear Provisions of the Electoral Act and INEC Guidelines which makes it mandatory for the Agents to witness what is happening.
After this strange “RE – COLLATION EXPEDITION” in far away Abuja, surprisingly no Agent of any Political Party witnessed or signed the new “Abuja Results ” Nnenna Otti and her cohorts concocted and brought back
after a whole three days !
In a very condescending manner, unscrupulous Mrs Nnenna Otti, the obviously biased Returning Officer, came back and used the strange Results to announce final scores thereby ROBBING THE PDP OF THEIR ADVANTAGE ACCRUING FROM THEIR KNOWN STRONGHOLD AND DENYING THEM LAWFUL VOTES already Collated at all levels.
And that again, is one of the major reasons why the Petitioners , Chief Ahiwe and the PDP complained that there was substantial non compliance with the provisions of the Law and then that the Alex Otti and Labour Party did not win by majority of the votes cast.
In deciding this issue, the Tribunal drew an instant explosion of noise and uproar in the Court Room from even Journalists, when they magically held that the Petitioners didn’t prove that the Obingwa LGA Results results were taken to Abuja – A FACT OF PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE WHICH THE RESPONDENTS ALREADY ADMITTED TO IN THEIR OWN DEPOSITION EVEN VIA THEIR STAR WITNESS AND WHICH WAS REPORTED IN VERY MAJOR MEDIA OUTLETS ACROSS THE GLOBE !
Such glaring, “overzealous”, miscarriage of Justice in a FACT that would have entirely altered the outcome of the Trial is another fundamental flaw.
With utmost respect to the Tribunal, this very perplexing finding made by them on the issue of the manipulation and exclusion of LAWFUL VOTES already Collated from Obingwa LGA is to say the least, untenable.
Cases in the Tribunal are fought principally on pleadings and the Petitioners ( Ahiwe/PDP) pleaded that the Obingwa Results was Collated, Declared and Announced at the LGA Collation Center at Obingwa and that when it was brought to Umuahia, the State Returning Officer, the reckless and incompetent Mrs Nnenna Otti suspended Collation and took the Results to Abuja for doctoring.
Intrestingly, at the Tribunal, both the Labour Party and Alex Otti admitted that they did go to Abuja with the Collated Obingwa LGA Results.
Infact, Mrs Nnenna Otti had a deposition prepared for her attached to the reply of the Respondents wherein she gave graphic details of what made her take the already Collated Obingwa LGA Results to Abuja for alteration.
So, the question of whether the Obingwa Results were taken to Abuja is not in dispute and it need not be proved any longer because in Law, A FACT THAT IS ADMITTED NEED NOT BE PROVED!
So, for the Tribunal to turn round and hold that the Petitioners did not prove that the Obingwa Results were taken to Abuja is like a huge joke ; the 8th wonder of this world and a travesty which has occasioned a gross miscarriage of Justice in this case.
As always, Alex Otti is miserably daft and ignorant. His petty reactions to what some people has since described as “prepared” and “prepaid” is pathetic.
After the widely rejected Judgement , he danced naked in the streets taunting his opponents to the divert monies they intend to spend on Appeals for building roads in their villages.
Yet, it is this same dimunitive Akex Otti who after the 2015 Gubernatorial Elections went all the way up to the Supreme Court three good times and criss – crossed all other available Courts in Nigeria in his futile attempt to truncate the Electoral mandate of his Predecessor.
By hastily mocking the APC and PDP after this very controversial and curious Judgement , he is nonsensically gloating in futility over nothing.
An election Tribunal lacks the power to ignore or set aside the decision of the Federal High Court. Also For you to supeona a witness, you must situate the witness within a petition. INEC cannot claim that they monitored Abia Labour Congress when in actual fact , there was no Congress to be monitored
These and many other grounds which are still available for legal scrutiny at the Appeal Court and the Supreme Court is the reason why the premature gyrations of Alex Otti is a sign of deliberate amnesia.
Judgements are not supposed to be transactional. However, It’s unfortunate that certain judicial pronouncements which often collapse when subjected to dispassionate legal scrutiny have become common place in our clime.
Unexplainable, politically motivated judgements dent the Judiciary and whenever the dispensation of Justice is colored by pecuniary interests, it certainly spells doom not just for our hallowed Judiciary but for the entire society.
…to be continued.
Eze Chikamnayo, a former Information Commissioner, writes from Aba
