Since June 27, Abia State has not known rest, following the removal of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu by a Federal High Court in Abuja. Last week, the parties returned to court, but Justice Okon Abang sent the matter to the Court of Appeal for resolution since there was no longer anything to stay on his judgment which had been executed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Eric Ikhilae writes.

The legal status of Okezie Ikpeazu as Abia State Governor became more intriguing last Friday. The problem arose from the orders and counter orders by three courts within a week.

It all began with two judgments on June 27 by Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court in Abuja, sacking Ikpeazu from office and ordering that Sampson Ogah, who came second in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primary election be sworn in as governor.

In compliance with the judgments given in separate suits by Ogah and Uba Eleagbara (described as a member of the PDP) marked: FHC/ 2086/2014 and the consequential orders made by the judge, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) issued a certificate of return (COR) to Ogah.

But, on June 30, before Ogah could be sworn in, Ikpeazu obtained an order from the Abia State High Court, Osisioma, restraining the  Chief Judge, Justice Theresa Uzokwe, or any judge from administering the oath of office on Ogah.

Justice C. H. Ahuchaogu, in an ex-parte order, in a suit: HOS 52/2016,  ordered “that the third defendant (state CJ) or any other judge of the court or any judicial officer are hereby restrained from swearing in the first defendant (Ogah) while the claimant remains in office in accordance with Section 143(1) and (2) of the Electoral Act 2010”.

This created a stalemate that could be resolved by the appellant courts, despite last Friday’s pronouncements by the trial courts.

A slap in the court’s face

Last Friday, while the Abia High Court, extended its order stopping Ogah’s swearing in, Justice Abang suspended proceedings on the pending applications in the Ogah case to await the decision of the appellate courts.

His decision was informed by the parties’ agreement that since the appeal against the judgment has been entered and given a number at the Court of Appeal, it was tidy to await its outcome. But, in relation to the judgment in the suit by Eleagbara, against which there was no pending appeals, Justice Abang dismissed the applications for stay of execution by Ikpeazu and the PDP. He reaffirmed the orders in the judgment, noting that there was nothing to stay.

The judge said: “The judgment of this court was given in favour of Dr. Sampson Ogah. One of the orders directed the PDP to forward the names of the person with the second highest votes at the PDP primary, Ikpeazu having been disqualified from contesting the primary, to INEC as the party’s candidate for the election.

“The order made against Ikpeazu was rightly made. It subsists until it is set aside on appeal. There is no issue of stay of execution. The judgment having been enforced by INEC, there is nothing to stay.

“The judgment has been executed; certificate of return has been issued in favour of Ogah as Governor of Abia State.

“There is no evidence that the motion for stay was served on INEC before it issued the certificate of return. Therefore, INEC lawfully issued the certificate of return to Ogah, which was issued in compliance with the orders of the court.”

The judge awarded N40,000 cost against PDP to be paid to Ogah before it could take any further steps in the case.

Justice Abang, though refusing to vacate the order made by the Abia High Court, as prayed by Ogah’s lawyer, Alex Iziyon (SAN), came down hard on Ikpeazu.

The judge noted that having taken steps to circumvent the execution of the court’s judgment, the court could no longer indulge him.

“Dr. Ikpeazu slapped the court in the face, went to a different court that is of coordinate jurisdiction and obtained another ex-parte order that has the effect of neutralising the order of this court.

“He slapped the court in the face; he cannot expect the court to grant him an indulgence. You cannot flout an order of court and expect the court to listen to you and grant you a discretionary indulgence. It is a serious matter to slap a court,” the judge said.

Road to stalemate

Upon suspicion that Ikpeazu, then a governorship aspirant, made a false claim in his tax information to his party prior to its primary on December 8, 2014, Eleagbala sued him at the Federal High Court and sought, among others, an order disqualifying Ikpeazu for allegedly violating his party’s Electoral Guidelines.

Ogah subsequently filed a similar suit, which was initially assigned to Justice Adeniyi Ademola (also of the Federal High Court, Abuja).

Ikpeazu objected to the suit by Eleagbara and challenged the court’s jurisdiction to hear it. While the issue of jurisdiction was pending at the appellate court, the respondents sought the transfer of the case before Justice Ademola, alleging bias.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court resolved the issue of jurisdiction raised against Eleagbara’s case by Ikpeazu. It ordered expeditious hearing of the case by the Federal High Court. The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Auta, later reassigned the case taken from Justice Ademola to Justice Abang.

On June 27, Justice Abang rendered his judgments in both cases. The judge, particularly, observed that Ikpeazu lied in his declaration to INEC that he fulfilled all requirements to stand for election, whereas he did not. He said the issue before the court was not about qualification as required under Section 177 of the Constitution or disqualification under Section 182 of the Constitution.

“The issue before the court is disqualification to participate in the first defendant’s (PDP’s) primary election for Abia State. It is not whether he was qualified under Section 177 of the Constitution to contest the governorship election.

“Since there is no provision for independent candidate, it is material that he must first meet the PDP requirement as stipulated in Article 14(a) of the PDP Electoral Guidelines,” the judge said.

The judge noted that since Ikpeazu was not qualified to contest the PDP primary by making false claim in his tax information submitted to his party, and which his party later submitted to INEC, he breached Section 31 of the Constitution.

Section 177 of the Constitution provides that a person shall be qualified for election to the office of Governor of a State if he is a citizen of Nigeria by birth; who is 35 years; he is a member of a political party and is sponsored by that political party; and he has been educated up to at least School Certificate level or its equivalent.

Section 182 (1) of the Constitution listed condition under which a candidate could be disqualified to include: voluntary acquisition of citizenship of another country, being elected to such office at any two previous elections; being adjudged a lunatic, or a person of unsound mind, being under a sentence of death; or within 10 years before the election he has been convicted and sentenced for an offence involving dishonesty; or having been found guilty of the contravention of the code of Conduct and being an undischarged bankrupt.

Others include that he has not resigned, withdrawn or retired from the employment of public service of the federation or a state at least thirty days to the date of the election; belonging to any secret society; or he has been indicted for embezzlement or fraud by a Judicial Commission of Inquiry or an Administrative Panel of Inquiry or a Tribunal, or if he has presented a forged certificate to INEC.

 Third party interests

Incidentally, the dispute has attracted third party interests, with some now seeking to benefit from the prevailing stalemate. One of such is Friday Nwosu, who said he was also a PDP governorship aspirant in the state.

He went to a Federal High Court in Owerri, the Imo State capital, urging the court to, among others, declare him as the ‘lawful’ governor of Abia State and not Ogah. Nwosu who alleged that Ikpeazu forged his tax papers

In a judgment last Friday, the trial judge, Justice A.I Allagoa, dismissed Nwosu’s suit on the grounds that he failed to discharge the burden of proof placed on him under the law to prove that the tax documents were, indeed, forged.

The judge stated further that Ikpeazu could not have issued himself the said receipt which was alleged to be fraught with irregularities, noting that it was purely an internal PDP matter and that the party acted within its right in fielding Ikpeazu for the election.

A candidate in the last governorship election in the state, Daniel Ikechukwu Onyeonagu, who contested under the banner of the Kowa Party, has also indicated interest in the case. He contended that Justice Abang was wrong for ordering that Ogah takes over from Ikpeazu as governor, but that the best decision would have been to order a fresh election.

Onyeonagu has applied to the Federal High Court, Abuja, as an interested party, for leave to appeal the judgments in both cases decided by the Abuja court.

One of the grounds of his appeal in his proposed notice of appeal, is that Justice Abang erred when he ordered that Ogah be sworn in, having not participated in the election as required under Section 141 of the Electoral Act.

Relying on the provision of Section 31(6) of the Electoral Act, Onyeonagu also faulted Justice Abang, contending that by the provision of Section 31(6), the much the judge could have gone was to disqualify a candidate found to have supplied false information from contesting the election.

“The powers of the court as envisaged under the provisions of Section 31(6) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) do not extend to that of declaring a runner up  to a disqualified candidate of a political party in an intra-party  primary, winner  of an inter-party election conducted by INEC, when the runner up only participated in the intra-party primary of the concerned political party of the disqualified candidate and not the general election conducted by INEC in which the electorates are given room to vote for the candidate of their choice,” he said.

Onyeonagu urged the Court of Appeal to set aside the judgments by Justice Abang and order INEC to conduct a fresh election for Abia State within 90 days from the day of its judgment, in which all political parties and Nigerian citizens, who vied for the governorship election of Abia State on April 11 and 25, this year are to participate to the exclusion of Ikpeazu, Ogah and their party.

Culled from The Nation.