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The Ogun State Election Petition Tribunal Judgement: A Travesty Of Justice And A Mockery Of The Rule Of Law By Saliu Iyanda
The decision by the Ogun State election petition tribunal to struck out the case filed by Senator Ibikunle Amosun, the gubernatorial candidate of the ANPP in the April 14th , 2007, came to many perspective Nigerians and keen watchers of the unfolding political cum judicial puzzle. According to the tribunal Amosun did not indicate his party, age, qualification and nationality, but are these reasons sufficient, cogent, veritable and justifiable enough to dismiss the case and not hear the merit of the substantive suit? Is Ibikunle Amosun a Cameroonian or a Togolese? Could he have been a nationality of another country and stand for election in Nigeria? If he hadn’t met the age and educational requirements as stipulated by the provisions of the law, would the Independent National Electoral Commission not have queried his eligibility for gubernatorial election in the first place? On the issue of his party, he was a Senator of the federal republic of Nigeria between 2003 and 2007, when he contested under the aegis of the PDP, and in the build-up to the gubernatorial election in Ogun State as well as attendant political arm-twisting he moved from PDP to ANPP. In Ogun State and beyond, the name Ibikunle Amosun is very well known, as he is a front-liner in Ogun State politics, in any case, both PDP and INEC did not raise any objection to his claims in all their replies and even in their four preliminary objections to strike out Ibikunle Amosun’s in the last few months. So, why would the tribunal go fishing for evidence to dismiss the suit at all cost? Why will the tribunal go on a voyage of the unexpected to engage in lemon-squeezing fault-finding excuses to stop the suit by any means possible?
It is for this reason that the CJ of the federation, honorable Idris Kutigi had admonished all the election petition tribunals to make sure that justice is done to all the cases before them. And, one would have expected that the tribunal in Ogun State would have painstakingly and meticulously look into this case, instead of clinging on to very feeble technical reasons to obstruct the justice and rule of law. The question that readily comes to mind is that, has the tribunal in Ogun State done justice to the case before it? Has it done justice to the people of the state who are the electorates who voted on April 14th, 2007? Justice, they say must just not be done, but it must be seen to have been done, in this case, none has been done. For instance, why will the tribunal engage in an ignoble expedition of mining for flimsy excuses to strike out the case before without hearing the merit of the substantive case? Is the tribunal not trying hard to hide some facts from the prying public? Has the tribunal not been compromised by trying desperately to sweep the case under the carpet and consign it to the dustbin of history? Is this not why the Ogun State government is using the tax-payers money to place adverts on television stations and in newspaper houses to congratulated itself on this purchased pseudo-victory as well as hire hatchet writers to misrepresent facts, misled the public and create the erroneous impression that what the tribunal did in Ogun State is right? This is the absurdity the people of Ogun State and indeed Nigerians in the unfolding political cum judicial puzzle.
The scenario in Ogun State is similar to what took place in Kwara State, the Governorship candidate of Peoples Progressive Alliance (PPA), Barrister Oyinkansola Saraki and PPA went to the Kwara State Election Petition Tribunal, because the party’s name, its governorship candidate’s name and the party’s logo were excluded from the April 14, election. The party also complained that the photograph of its candidate was not on the ballot papers. The election petition tribunal in Kwara State on July 31, 2007 struck out the petition filed before it by Oyinkansola Saraki and her party, PPA. According to the tribunal, it was on the ground that the petitioners lacked locus standi to file the petition. The petitioners who were not satisfied by the ruling of the tribunal went to the Court of Appeal to seek redress. In its judgement the Court of Appeal held that petitioner based on the evidence before the court clearly showed that it met all requirements by INEC to participate in the April 14 governorship election. By this the appellate Court in a unanimous judgement set aside the ruling of the tribunal. The Court of Appeal likened the case to that of a student who obtains a form from an examination board. Then waiting for day of examination but the student discovered at the venue that his name was not on the list of those approved to write the exam. Such a candidate should be afforded the right to have access to ventilate his grievances. Hence, the court ordered that, a fresh panel be constituted to hear the case on its merit.
It is on record that, one can go to court and get a judgement and not justice. It is for this reason that it has been admonished that judgement by technicalities should be jettisoned. For instance, honourable Justice Achike said, “the heydays of technicalities are now over because the weight of judicial authorities has shifted from undue reliance on technicalities to doing substantial justice even handedly to the parties to the case”. Also, Justice .A. Orilonise remarked that, “the days of justice by technicality which is as bad as injustice are over. Justice by technicality has long died in Nigeria for good and has since been buried. The trend these days is to strive to do substantial justice on the merit to each case……The need to do substantial justice is, in my view, greater in an election petition where the tribunal is concerned not only with the rights of the parties to the petition per se, but the wider interest and right of the public at large, especially the electorate who have exercised their franchise at the polls”.
So, what Amosun has done, is not to take the law into his hands and become violent. That is the hallmark of intolerance and selfishness in politics. Instead, he took solace within the armpits of the law, believing that the Judiciary is the last bastion of hope of the people. Just like in the case of Rotimi Chibike Ameachi, the Supreme Court had to direct the Court of Appeal on two occasions to hear petitioner Ameachi out, as his petition was in order, and when eventually the Court of Appeal reluctantly accepted to hear the case, it delivered a political judgement based on controvertible technical lacuna. Hence, when the case got to the Supreme Court finally. It wasted no time in delivering real judgement and made Rotimi Ameachi the authentic governor of River State.
Albeit, the case of Ameachi and the one in Kwara State are cases of wrongful exclusions. The point must be made that in election petition cases, tribunals must endeavour to listen to the merit of substantive cases thoroughly, deliver perspicacious judgements based on rationale thinking and not technical alibis. It is in this connection that, honourable Justice Muhammadu Uwais, formerly of the Supreme Court said, “Election petitions are by their nature peculiar from other proceedings and are very important from the point of view of public policy. It is the duty of the courts therefore to endeavour to hear them without allowing technicalities to unduly fetter their jurisdiction”.
In any case, the Supreme Court judgement in the case of Peter Obi has settled the issue of tenure of office of a governor. And, the tribunal in Ogun State has not looked into the merit of Amosun’s petition, nowhere has the tribunal ruled that the election was either free or fair and the tribunal has never said the PDP candidate, Otunba Gbenga Daniel was validly elected in the April 14th election.
Hence, it is not yet over in the election petition case in Ogun State. The politics of the last era was characterized by do or die modus operandi, which resulted in the worst election ever in the history of Nigeria, as attested to local and international observers that monitored the April 2007 elections in Nigeria. Professional riggers of elections do not care about the people. This is because the always think they don’t need the people, they think power belongs to them (riggers of elections in power) and that they can always be manipulated to suit their whim and caprices. Is the way and manner the April election was conducted a thing of joy? No right thinking person will celebrate the result of that election. In fact, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has said that they election was fundamentally flawed. Sadly enough, one of the foreign observers noted that the April elections fall far below the standard set by Nigeria for itself. It then went on to compare the election in Nigeria to those of Mongolia and Somalia.
It is expected that the Court of Appeal will not only upturn the verdict of the tribunal in Ogun State. It will also pass a vote of no confidence in panel and reconstitute it, like it did in the case of the tribunal in Kwara State. Not only this, the National Judicial Council (NJC) should swiftly investigate cases of corruption and compromise against erring judges and deal decisively with them.
The handling of the case in Ogun state just like that of Delta is a big dent of the blossoming image of the judiciary. The judgement by the Ogun State Election Petition Tribunal is not only a travesty of justice, but a mockery of the rule of law.
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