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Judicial Theft of the Adamawa Mandate By Babayola
Toungo
Adamawa
people have had their temporary parole revoked by the Court of Appeal
sitting in Jos. When the
Justice Kashim Zanna Tribunal nullified election result in fourteen
local governments in Adamawa state in the 2003 gubernatorial elections,
there was unrestrained jubilation and a feeling of de
javu by the generality of the populace, who had been living dead
under an administration that is insensitive, ineffective and inept to
the wishes and aspirations of the citizens.
The ecstasy with which the populace received the Justice Zanna
Tribunal verdict suddenly got dampened by the Jos fiasco.
The generality of the people wore forlorn faces immediately they
heard of the judgment on July 5th.
Yola, the This
is a government that is a reference in maladministration, ineptitude and
insensitivity. A government
that rode on an unrestrained wind of goodwill that it squandered within
the first two years of governance. The
electorates were only waiting for the elections of 2003 to show them the
way out. This, they did by
voting overwhelming against the PDP government of Boni Haruna, but they
refused to go. Fantastic
results that may sound to a visitor to The
image of the judiciary that has been battered since the advent of this
administration got uplifted by the courageous decision of the Zanna
Tribunal to nullify the results in fourteen local governments based on
the evidence presented before them.
Many people thought the judiciary was on the way to finding its
feet and independence. We
may never know whether the Vice President’s bombasts scared the Appeal
Court Judges to give the judgment they gave.
In the aftermath of the lower tribunal’s verdict, the Vice
President promised Justice Zanna and his co-panellist in particular and
the judiciary in general thunder and brimstone.
That the verdict was a personal affront to him, as if he was a
party to the ANPP petition. He
threatened to slap and even beat the poor judge.
The Vice President reduced himself to incoherence in his ranting
and was infact a subject of derision.
Now that he got the judgment that he likes, the Vice President is
suddenly singing a new song, celebrating the Nigerian judiciary as the
best in But
one thing you can’t take away from the lower tribunal was the fact
that it delivered its judgement with its head held high and in the
process raised by a notch the entire judiciary’s integrity nationwide.
A judiciary that people came to associate with the likes of
Justices Wilson Egbo-Egbo and Stanley Nnaji.
Justice Zanna and his co-panellist appear as a silver lining in a
rather darkening judicial horizon and now they have been frightened by
the Vice President’s and by extension the PDP’s boorish reaction.
The generality of Nigerians had lost confidence in a judiciary
that made it possible for Wabara, who did not contest elections to
become the third in line of succession as Senate President; a judiciary
that would cause a state governor lose his security detail in a spurious
case presented by a paid agent. It
is within this environment a Zanna Kashim sprung from the Borno
judiciary as a Daniel come to judgement.
The vituperations rained on him by the Vice President and the
entire PDP leadership of Adamawa state was enough to scare his brother
judges at the Court of Appeal to reverse his judgement.
How sad. The Zanna
tribunal gave its ruling based on the evidences presented before it and
it is widely acknowledged that there was no election in Adamawa state
during the April 2003 elections. What
happened in Adamawa was more or less political terrorism where all stops
were pulled and gloves removed by the security agencies, INEC and
government agencies to ensure that the PDP was returned to power
irrespective of the wishes of the electorate.
There is nowhere apart from may be the south – south and the
south east where elections weren’t held, that the electorate were
really short-changed than in Adamawa.
And this is what the It
is now safe to say that the ANPP with a petition before the Presidential
Elections Petitions Tribunal could also tread the path of threats and
brigandage if the tribunal delivers any judgement contrary to the
expectations of the party. The
emerging trend appears to be the PDP could not lose any election in I would strongly advise the ANPP and its Presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari to guard their loins against this type of judicial ambush. The Nigerian judiciary has proved to be an establishment bootlicker, so for the party or its candidate to think they could get justice from the courts will tantamount to fantasy. If the tonnes of evidence presented by the Adamawa state ANPP gubernatorial candidate in his petition could be regarded as no more than “trash” , then I see no way anyone seeking for justice in a Nigerian court should expect it or even hope for it. Left to me, anybody with a prayer in any court in the country should, as a matter of urgency, withdraw it. It appears our courts are meant only for the protection of the likes of Chris Ubas of the land. The judiciary is only interested in making Obasanjo and the PDP happy; if the PDP ask the judiciary to jump, it only asks how high. Nigerians are in trouble and being saddled with a government that would not go no matter how many times it ha s been voted out of office and by how much million votes. We may have to pray for divine intervention to be free of these insensitive men and women in the corridors of power masquerading as leaders. Surely, when those who, by brute force have arrogated to themselves the power to preside over our affairs now join forces with those who have the responsibility to protect us from tyranny and injustice, and continue to trample on our rights and socio-economic well being, for them there is only one-way ticket to Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). May the good Lord deliver us from the strangulating hold of these criminal politicians and their judicial mercenary collaborators. |