Struggle for the Soul of APC

[Salihu Lukman]

Struggle for the Soul of APC

 

Salihu Moh. Lukman

Progressive Governors Forum

Asokoro, Abuja

 

It is very difficult and challenging to come to terms with unfolding development in APC. The disconcerting reality of becoming clobbered into another undemocratic political platform, which is intolerant to basic tenets of free and fair contests is hard to admit. We may be in denial on account of perverted loyalty. Anyone with small residue of conscience and integrity must have been jolted by what is going on. It doesn’t matter what our preferences are, every member must be concerned and worried about what is going on. It may be easy to pass judgement on leaders. We must however recognise that the failings or limitations of our leaders are equally ours as members of the party.

 

Without any attempt to qualify electoral experiences since 2019, every member and leader of APC should be troubled. Being troubled should have spurred us into some sober reflections with the objective of remedying the situation. Unfortunately, it would appear that we are more determined to reproduce all the obdurate painful experiences, every time we are faced with electoral contests. It was Rivers, Zamfara and Bayelsa. Now Edo and Ondo are basically on a roller costar with perhaps emerging with the same predictable outcome that consumed our electoral victories in Zamfara and Bayelsa States. Why should this be allowed to happen?

 

In the end, individuals will make their choices. The hard question that may discomfit us will be where do we stand on the question of justice? Are we on this roller costar simply because we have to pay the price for all the political infractions we inherited allegedly from Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP)? If this is the case, wouldn’t it have been better for Nigerians to live with those alleged PDP infractions? No need to aspire to any form of consensus on these matters. The first task is for individuals to make their choices. In making those choices, it is not about identifying with any of our leaders, but about the future of our party and with it our democracy.

 

It is quite unfortunate that we found ourselves in this stagnant political water of brazen acts of imposition of candidates through some applications of crude technicalities under the leadership of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as National Chairman of the Party. Recalling his fascinating proclamation while announcing his intention to aspire for the office of National Chairman of APC on May 10, 2018, it is not reconcilable that the same Comrade Oshiomhole is today as the National Chairman of the party perpetrating the direct opposite of what he promised in 2018. Two points are worth lifting from Comrade Oshiomhole’s speech of May 10, 2018.

 

“… we will ensure that we identify and where necessary verify who is a member of APC. For us, the irreducible minimum for the party leadership is to have a credible membership register that cannot be altered at the whims and caprices of anyone. The register will be available to any member of the party who desires it. It is important to note that the idea of a credible membership record agrees with the vision of the founding fathers of the party which led the establishment of the APC Data Centre in Lagos.”

 

I challenge Comrade Oshiomhole to publish APC’s membership register for every state of the country. No one should push us into debate about modes of internal party elections without producing the register of voters. It is like getting the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct elections without displaying voters register. It will be criminal, and it will undermine every known democratic principle.

 

The second point Comrade Oshiomhole made in 2018 was “…we shall put in place mechanism for conflict management. We know that in human interactions, there are bound to be conflicts arising from differences in opinion and perspectives. The responsibility of the party will be to engage in consensus building and conflict management. In particular, we will intervene in the lingering crises between Governors and members of the National Assembly in their respective states as a result of poor communication, conflict of interest, or just being victims of rumour mongering. When I am given the privilege to lead the party by being elected at the National Convention, we will proactively engage all the parties involved in such conflicts with a view to helping them to find common ground on the basis of justice, equity and fairness, and without bias.”

 

Where is the mechanism for conflict management in APC today after two year of Comrade Oshiomhole’s leadership? Can Comrade Oshiomhole mention just one instance where the party under his leadership is able to resolve any of the crises in the party? Or, can Comrade Oshiomhole just mention one case where the party was able to get members to build consensus? I have had reason in the past to appeal to Comrade Oshiomhole to apply his negotiation skills in leading the party. Unfortunately, he (Comrade Oshiomhole) dismissed my appeal called me names, which goes to show how intolerant he become, a confirmation perhaps that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

 

These two points, membership records and mechanism for conflict management are at the heart of all the challenges facing the APC today. They are challenges that define politics in Nigeria across all the republics since independence. Perhaps, inability of political parties to develop appropriate mechanisms for managing these challenges was the catalysing factor for the emergence of APC. The emergence of APC with potential to institute new paradigm of internal party contest was part of the reasons for its electoral successes of 2015. Sadly, soon after the 2015 victory, we appear to have relapse back to the old political culture of imposition and money politics.

 

Recalling in particular, under the PDP between 1999 and 2015, how Nigerians were robbed of the opportunity to have choices during elections, most Nigerians expected some decorum and civility in the internal management of electoral contests in APC. We can decide to celebrate ourselves and make all manner of public claims. Whatever argument, we may wish to make in defense of our indefensible reality, no matter how eloquently stated, we have betrayed our members, or if you want to put it mildly, we have departed from our founding philosophy. In fact, we have taken Nigerian politics to a level far below what it was before 2015, no thanks to Comrade Oshiomhole.

 

As a person that can claim to have close relations with Comrade Oshiomhole, my heart bleed as I try to come to terms with what is going on under Comrade Oshiomhole’s leadership. It is unfathomable that rather than deliver on his promises as outlined in his May 10, 2018 speech, he has descended to the same old abrasive politics of turning logic upside down just because he wants to demonstrate his power. It is with heavy heart that one recalls our years of struggle against General Sani Abacha’s Decree No. 4, which banned full-time trade union leaders from contesting Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) position.

 

Clearly targeted at preventing Comrade Oshiomhole from emerging as President of NLC, the struggle against Decree 4 between 1996 and 1998 when Gen. Abacha died became the rallying point for mobilising union leaders against military rule in Nigeria. Late Alh. Uba Ahmed, the Minister of Labour under Gen. Abacha must be turning in his grave given how today Comrade Oshiomhole is highhandedly managing the affairs of APC. If this is the end result of the struggle for democracy, why did we fight the military?

 

Ordinarily, coming from trade unions with functional democratic structures, governed by rules, it will be expected that Comrade Oshiomhole will seamlessly give leadership for the emergence of APC as a democratic party. Instead, we now have an APC with only the National Working Committee (NWC) functioning. Note that the NWC is only an administrative organ that is expected to implement decisions of National Executive Committee (NEC) and National Convention. Arguments bordering on powers vested on the NWC by the APC constitution are being canvassed. Some even go as far as arguing that Comrade Oshiomhole is the chief executive officer of the party.

 

Some journalist who are supposed to act as the conscience of citizens go as far as interpreting the powers of Comrade Oshiomhole as National Chairman to include the prerogative to send the name of any candidate to the INEC. Based on some of these perverted arguments views such as owners of the party outside membership of the party are being peddled. Anyone who question these erroneous positions get blackmailed. It is either we are doing it because of, or in support of, ambition for 2023. Interestingly, those championing this campaign of blackmail are known to have political ambitions, some of them since 2007. When has it become a crime for politicians to have ambition? Of what use is politics, if it will not to serve as a vehicle for the actualisation of political ambitions?

 

What should be debated is the content of our ambitions and what we want to use it for. To the extent that we are back in the trenches of undemocratic and brazen conduct of party leaders, we must rise to the challenge of engaging our leaders to rescue our party, APC, from the hands of leaders who are intolerant. That was the incentive, which guided the process leading to the emergence of APC. No one, no matter his/her position should take Nigerians for a ride. Whether in APC or out of APC, nobody should imagine that party members don’t matter.

 

It is clear that, APC leadership as currently constituted under the leadership of Comrade Oshiomhole is imprudent and cannot be entrusted with the task of leading the party. Comrade Oshiomhole’s NWC has hawked the soul of the party to political buccaneers whose narrow interest is just about unfairly winning elections. Party members must wake up and face the arduous task of reclaiming the leadership of the party. Such a task must be about ensuring the emergence of honest leadership for the party – a leadership that should be able to allow free application of provisions of the APC constitution.

 

For the avoidance of doubt, APC does not belong to anybody. It is a product of sacrifice by leaders and members of our old legacy parties. Nobody should contemplate leaving the party on account of the rascality going on in the party under Comrade Oshiomhole’s leadership. All members of the party and lovers of democracy in Nigeria must rise against what is going on in APC. It is a struggle for the soul of APC!

 

This position does not represent the view of any APC Governor or the Progressive Governors Forum

 

 

[Salihu Lukman]

[Salimonu Kadiri]

​There is no need to struggle for the soul of APC since, like all other political parties in Nigeria, its soul is strongly entrenched in the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria where it is stipulated in Section 65:2g that no Nigerian can contest for an elected office (for the Presidency, National Assembly, Governorship, States' House of Assemblies and local councils) without belonging to a political party which must sponsor one. In order to strengthen party supremacy and prevent political halotory, Section 68:1g of the Constitution prohibits carpet crossing and any legislator that changes political party before the expiration of the lifespan for which the National Assembly is elected shall automatically lose his/her seat in the Legislature. The same measure is stipulated for the House of Assemblies in the 36 States of Nigeria under Section 109: 1g. The current problem facing the APC emanated from 2014 when it wrongly admitted into its fold some elements who did not believe in party supremacy and would never submit to party discipline. Thus, after the Presidential and National Assembly elections of 2015, the APC majority in the National Assembly was seized by the New and Old PDP members, whereby the Speaker of the House of Reps and his Deputy, as well as the President of the Senate and his Deputy, emerged against the collective and majority decision of the APC leadership. In case of the Senate, Bukola Saraki (new-PDP) in APC garment traded off the deputy Senate President to Ike Ekweremadu (the old-PDP). Like a beheaded venom, the then National Chairman of the APC, Professor John Odigie-Oyegun, made some spasmodic moves to get Yakubu Doagara and Bukola Saraki to toe party line but at the end he slumped. The National Assembly was controlled by forces that were opposed to what Buhari and APC campaigned and won election for. If APC had gotten a gifted National Chairman, he could have seen to it that those who won elections on the platform of APC but were acting against the interest of the party in the National Assembly were expelled from the party. Since the constitution does not permit legislators without belonging to a political party, those expelled from the party would automatically have lost their seats in the National Assembly. The APC was in disarray as the  majority of its mandate in the National Assembly was stolen by political prostitutes. As the 2019 Presidential, National and States' Assembly elections were fast approaching, the APC realized that it had to overhaul the whole party apparatus if it were to have any chance of winning the elections.

​It was at that stage that Adam Oshiomhole became National Chairman of the APC whose immediate task was to enforce Party Supremacy and discipline among members. When he resumed office, most APC governors had converted the APC party in their State to their personal organisation with the intention to singlehandedly select who should stand for elections to the States' House of Assembly, National Assembly and in some cases, who should contest as governors to succeed them. The Chairman of the APC in each State should not be subordinate to the Governor but the National Chairman in Abuja. Many APC Governors did not and would not accept that the APC secretariat in their state is not under their control. For instance, Governor Okorocha had wanted his in-law to succeed him and he wanted to pick candidates not only for Imo State House of Assembly but also for the National Assembly. In Ogun State, Governor Amosu wanted to pick his successor as well as candidates for the State's House of Assembly and National Assembly. The list of wannabe party dynasty was already long when the new APC National Chairman assumed office. Adam Oshiomhole had to be fearless in confronting the political harlots within the APC, who would rather prefer a PDP to win elections in their respective state if their handpicked candidates were rejected by the APC democratic caucus. Unfortunately for APC and Oshiomhole the corrupt judiciary is always there, ready to issue frivolous orders in favour of rogue politicians. Ironically, Adam Oshiomhole were to face stiffest opposition to his enthronement of party supremacy and discipline in the APC in his own home state, Edo, where the Governor, Godwin Nogheghase Obaseki, is his chief antagonist. In the 2019 elections to Edo House of Assembly, the APC won all the 24 seats in the State. However, Governor Obaseki in a midnight coup inaugurated the State's Assembly with nine members APC while shutting out the rest fifteen. So far, the courts are yet to find it expedient to declare that, democratically, fifteen is greater than nine and as such the action of Governor Gabriel Nogheghase Obaseki in inaugurating nine out twenty-four elected members of Edo House of Assembly since June 2019 is null and void.

​Dear Salihu Moh. Lukman, you referred to the adverse electoral fate of APC in Rivers, Zamfara and Bayelsa States which, as I can see, had nothing to do with deficient internal party democracy. In Rivers, the court barred the APC from fielding candidates in the National and State's Assembly elections. That was a plain abuse of judicial powers which of course was premised on judicial corruption. Where there are two factions of a political party in a State, the National Secretariat of the Party should be able to decide which faction is the authentic representative of the party in the State and which can contest elections on its platform. If there is any need for court's intervention about which faction of a political party is entitled to field candidates in an election, the courts should get the case concluded before election. Why should the courts arrogate to themselves the power to grant political party the right to, and not to, field candidates in an election? In Zamfara a faction of the APC had obtained court order stopping the other faction from fielding candidates. However, another Court ordered the INEC to put the other faction on the ballot. INEC obeyed the last court order and allowed the APC to field candidates. The APC won subsequent gubernatorial, National and State's Assembly elections in Zamfara. Then on 24 May 2019 the Supreme Court awarded Zamfara elections to the PDP on the ground that the APC ought not to have fielded candidates in the State's election. Yet, Section 140 : 1 of the 1999 Constitution as amended says - Subject to subsection 2 of this section, if the Tribunal or Court as the case may be, determines that a candidate who was returned as elected was not validly elected on any ground, the Tribunal or the Court shall nullify the election. Subsection 2 States : Where an election Tribunal or Court nullifies an election on the ground that the person who obtained the highest votes at the election was not qualified to contest the election, the election Tribunal or Court shall not declare the person with the second highest votes as elected, but shall order a fresh election. As a simple fact to illustrate the illogicality of the Supreme Court in declaring PDP as the winner of Zamfara Governorship and State's House of Assembly, the APC Gubernatorial candidate, Alhaji Idris Mukhtar won 534,541 votes against his PDP opponent, Dr. Bello Muhammad Mutawalle, who garnered 189,452 votes. What happened next was that the Supreme Court Justices consisting of four Judges, namely, Paul Galinje, John Inyang Okoro, Uwani Aba-Aji and Olukayode Ariwoola, disenfranchised 534,541 people that voted for APC Gubernatorial candidate. It was not a question of justice or democracy but a question of abuse of judicial power. In other democratic societies, the 534, 541 that voted for Alhaji Idris Mukhtar and APC would have invaded Abuja to protest against their disenfranchisements by the Supreme Court. 

As for the Bayelsa Gubernatorial election of 16 November 2019, the PDP had challenged, in court, the validity of the credentials submitted by the APC deputy governor aspirant, Senator Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo. The PDP submitted that the names of the APC deputy gubernatorial aspirant in his primary School certificate was Degi Biobaragha; his secondary school certificate bore Adegi Biobarakumo as his name; his University education had his name as Degi Biobarakuma; and his MBA certificate had his name as Degi Biobarakuma Wangagha. Premised on his various of names, the Abuja High Court, on 12 November 2019, disqualified Senator Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo from participating in the 16 November 2019 governorship election for presenting false information to the electoral umpire, INEC. That was four days to the election day. Degi-Eremienyo appealed the High Court's Judgment to the Appeal Court which delivered Judgment after the election. The Appeal Court found that there were affidavits and newspapers' publications to corroborate change of names by Degi-Eremienyo. His PDP opponents could not prove anything false or criminal with the various names on his certificates. Dissatisfied with the judgment of the Appeal Court, the PDP appealed to the Supreme Court even though by then David Lyon and Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo of the APC had won the gubernatorial election on a joint ticket. Few days to their inaugurations, Justice Mary Odili led Supreme Court Panel, on Thursday 13 February 2020 held that the nomination form which Degi-Eremienyo submitted to INEC for the purpose of participating in the 16 November 2019, Bayelsa governorship election contained false information. Therefore, Justice Mary Odili led Supreme Court Panel ordered INEC to immediately withdraw the certificate of return to the governor-elect and his deputy and to instead issue the same to the candidate with the second highest votes in the November 16, 2019, Bayelsa gubernatorial election. Through judicial rascality and gross abuse of judicial power, the Supreme Court disenfranchised majority people of Bayelsa and imposed on them a PDP Governor and his Deputy who they have never elected or voted for. Even if the Supreme Court had been able to prove that the elected Deputy Governor had submitted false documents to contest the election, which is not the case till date, he alone should have been sacked while David Lyon should have been allowed to pick a new deputy governor. Normally, if the deputy governor were to die in office or incapacitated from running his office, the substantive governor would never removed from office. Noteworthy is the fact that Justice Mary Odili of the Supreme Court is the wife of the former Governor of River State, 1999 - 2007. Towards the end of his tenure in 2007, he secured a perpetual court order, in March 2007, to prevent the EFCC or any law enforcement agency in Nigeria from arresting, interrogating, detaining and prosecuting him on how he had expended all the funds accrued to Rivers State during his eight years tenure. The EFCC that had a case of one-hundred million naira treasury looting against Dr. Peter Odili appealed against the perpetual injunction at the Court of Appeal Port Harcourt, but the appeal is yet to be listed for hearing as of today. Problems within the APC have nothing to do with lack of internal party democracy, presumed being perpetrated by Adam Oshiomhole, but lack of party discipline and acceptance of party supremacy in decision making process by members. Adam Oshiomhole's problem with some elements within the APC is that he wants APC to be an active political party everyday of the year, a kind of grassroots party, and not just a political party only during election period.

S. Kadiri        

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[OLAYINKA AGBETUYI]

Baba Kadiri 

But you have not addressed Lukmans charges against Oshiomhole that he did not follow his pledge of setting up a conflict resolution mechanism which should facilitate the party discipline you speak of and that the NWC had usurped the roles of other party bodies such as the NEC.

OAA

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

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Date: 18/06/2020 00:08 (GMT+00:00)

To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Sv: Struggle for the Soul of APC

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​There is no need to struggle for the soul of APC since, like all other political parties in Nigeria, its soul is strongly entrenched in the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria where it is stipulated in Section 65:2g that no Nigerian can contest for an elected office (for the Presidency, National Assembly, Governorship, States' House of Assemblies and local councils) without belonging to a political party which must sponsor one. In order to strengthen party supremacy and prevent political halotory, Section 68:1g of the Constitution prohibits carpet crossing and any legislator that changes political party before the expiration of the lifespan for which the National Assembly is elected shall automatically lose his/her seat in the Legislature. The same measure is stipulated for the House of Assemblies in the 36 States of Nigeria under Section 109: 1g. The current problem facing the APC emanated from 2014 when it wrongly admitted into its fold some elements who did not believe in party supremacy and would never submit to party discipline. Thus, after the Presidential and National Assembly elections of 2015, the APC majority in the National Assembly was seized by the New and Old PDP members, whereby the Speaker of the House of Reps and his Deputy, as well as the President of the Senate and his Deputy, emerged against the collective and majority decision of the APC leadership. In case of the Senate, Bukola Saraki (new-PDP) in APC garment traded off the deputy Senate President to Ike Ekweremadu (the old-PDP). Like a beheaded venom, the then National Chairman of the APC, Professor John Odigie-Oyegun, made some spasmodic moves to get Yakubu Doagara and Bukola Saraki to toe party line but at the end he slumped. The National Assembly was controlled by forces that were opposed to what Buhari and APC campaigned and won election for. If APC had gotten a gifted National Chairman, he could have seen to it that those who won elections on the platform of APC but were acting against the interest of the party in the National Assembly were expelled from the party. Since the constitution does not permit legislators without belonging to a political party, those expelled from the party would automatically have lost their seats in the National Assembly. The APC was in disarray as the  majority of its mandate in the National Assembly was stolen by political prostitutes. As the 2019 Presidential, National and States' Assembly elections were fast approaching, the APC realized that it had to overhaul the whole party apparatus if it were to have any chance of winning the elections.

​It was at that stage that Adam Oshiomhole became National Chairman of the APC whose immediate task was to enforce Party Supremacy and discipline among members. When he resumed office, most APC governors had converted the APC party in their State to their personal organisation with the intention to singlehandedly select who should stand for elections to the States' House of Assembly, National Assembly and in some cases, who should contest as governors to succeed them. The Chairman of the APC in each State should not be subordinate to the Governor but the National Chairman in Abuja. Many APC Governors did not and would not accept that the APC secretariat in their state is not under their control. For instance, Governor Okorocha had wanted his in-law to succeed him and he wanted to pick candidates not only for Imo State House of Assembly but also for the National Assembly. In Ogun State, Governor Amosu wanted to pick his successor as well as candidates for the State's House of Assembly and National Assembly. The list of wannabe party dynasty was already long when the new APC National Chairman assumed office. Adam Oshiomhole had to be fearless in confronting the political harlots within the APC, who would rather prefer a PDP to win elections in their respective state if their handpicked candidates were rejected by the APC democratic caucus. Unfortunately for APC and Oshiomhole the corrupt judiciary is always there, ready to issue frivolous orders in favour of rogue politicians. Ironically, Adam Oshiomhole were to face stiffest opposition to his enthronement of party supremacy and discipline in the APC in his own home state, Edo, where the Governor, Godwin Nogheghase Obaseki, is his chief antagonist. In the 2019 elections to Edo House of Assembly, the APC won all the 24 seats in the State. However, Governor Obaseki in a midnight coup inaugurated the State's Assembly with nine members APC while shutting out the rest fifteen. So far, the courts are yet to find it expedient to declare that, democratically, fifteen is greater than nine and as such the action of Governor Gabriel Nogheghase Obaseki in inaugurating nine out twenty-four elected members of Edo House of Assembly since June 2019 is null and void.

​Dear Salihu Moh. Lukman, you referred to the adverse electoral fate of APC in Rivers, Zamfara and Bayelsa States which, as I can see, had nothing to do with deficient internal party democracy. In Rivers, the court barred the APC from fielding candidates in the National and State's Assembly elections. That was a plain abuse of judicial powers which of course was premised on judicial corruption. Where there are two factions of a political party in a State, the National Secretariat of the Party should be able to decide which faction is the authentic representative of the party in the State and which can contest elections on its platform. If there is any need for court's intervention about which faction of a political party is entitled to field candidates in an election, the courts should get the case concluded before election. Why should the courts arrogate to themselves the power to grant political party the right to, and not to, field candidates in an election? In Zamfara a faction of the APC had obtained court order stopping the other faction from fielding candidates. However, another Court ordered the INEC to put the other faction on the ballot. INEC obeyed the last court order and allowed the APC to field candidates. The APC won subsequent gubernatorial, National and State's Assembly elections in Zamfara. Then on 24 May 2019 the Supreme Court awarded Zamfara elections to the PDP on the ground that the APC ought not to have fielded candidates in the State's election. Yet, Section 140 : 1 of the 1999 Constitution as amended says - Subject to subsection 2 of this section, if the Tribunal or Court as the case may be, determines that a candidate who was returned as elected was not validly elected on any ground, the Tribunal or the Court shall nullify the election. Subsection 2 States : Where an election Tribunal or Court nullifies an election on the ground that the person who obtained the highest votes at the election was not qualified to contest the election, the election Tribunal or Court shall not declare the person with the second highest votes as elected, but shall order a fresh election. As a simple fact to illustrate the illogicality of the Supreme Court in declaring PDP as the winner of Zamfara Governorship and State's House of Assembly, the APC Gubernatorial candidate, Alhaji Idris Mukhtar won 534,541 votes against his PDP opponent, Dr. Bello Muhammad Mutawalle, who garnered 189,452 votes. What happened next was that the Supreme Court Justices consisting of four Judges, namely, Paul Galinje, John Inyang Okoro, Uwani Aba-Aji and Olukayode Ariwoola, disenfranchised 534,541 people that voted for APC Gubernatorial candidate. It was not a question of justice or democracy but a question of abuse of judicial power. In other democratic societies, the 534, 541 that voted for Alhaji Idris Mukhtar and APC would have invaded Abuja to protest against their disenfranchisements by the Supreme Court. 

As for the Bayelsa Gubernatorial election of 16 November 2019, the PDP had challenged, in court, the validity of the credentials submitted by the APC deputy governor aspirant, Senator Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo. The PDP submitted that the names of the APC deputy gubernatorial aspirant in his primary School certificate was Degi Biobaragha; his secondary school certificate bore Adegi Biobarakumo as his name; his University education had his name as Degi Biobarakuma; and his MBA certificate had his name as Degi Biobarakuma Wangagha. Premised on his various of names, the Abuja High Court, on 12 November 2019, disqualified Senator Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo from participating in the 16 November 2019 governorship election for presenting false information to the electoral umpire, INEC. That was four days to the election day. Degi-Eremienyo appealed the High Court's Judgment to the Appeal Court which delivered Judgment after the election. The Appeal Court found that there were affidavits and newspapers' publications to corroborate change of names by Degi-Eremienyo. His PDP opponents could not prove anything false or criminal with the various names on his certificates. Dissatisfied with the judgment of the Appeal Court, the PDP appealed to the Supreme Court even though by then David Lyon and Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo of the APC had won the gubernatorial election on a joint ticket. Few days to their inaugurations, Justice Mary Odili led Supreme Court Panel, on Thursday 13 February 2020 held that the nomination form which Degi-Eremienyo submitted to INEC for the purpose of participating in the 16 November 2019, Bayelsa governorship election contained false information. Therefore, Justice Mary Odili led Supreme Court Panel ordered INEC to immediately withdraw the certificate of return to the governor-elect and his deputy and to instead issue the same to the candidate with the second highest votes in the November 16, 2019, Bayelsa gubernatorial election. Through judicial rascality and gross abuse of judicial power, the Supreme Court disenfranchised majority people of Bayelsa and imposed on them a PDP Governor and his Deputy who they have never elected or voted for. Even if the Supreme Court had been able to prove that the elected Deputy Governor had submitted false documents to contest the election, which is not the case till date, he alone should have been sacked while David Lyon should have been allowed to pick a new deputy governor. Normally, if the deputy governor were to die in office or incapacitated from running his office, the substantive governor would never removed from office. Noteworthy is the fact that Justice Mary Odili of the Supreme Court is the wife of the former Governor of River State, 1999 - 2007. Towards the end of his tenure in 2007, he secured a perpetual court order, in March 2007, to prevent the EFCC or any law enforcement agency in Nigeria from arresting, interrogating, detaining and prosecuting him on how he had expended all the funds accrued to Rivers State during his eight years tenure. The EFCC that had a case of one-hundred million naira treasury looting against Dr. Peter Odili appealed against the perpetual injunction at the Court of Appeal Port Harcourt, but the appeal is yet to be listed for hearing as of today. Problems within the APC have nothing to do with lack of internal party democracy, presumed being perpetrated by Adam Oshiomhole, but lack of party discipline and acceptance of party supremacy in decision making process by members. Adam Oshiomhole's problem with some elements within the APC is that he wants APC to be an active political party everyday of the year, a kind of grassroots party, and not just a political party only during election period.

S. Kadiri        

Från: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> för Salihu Lukman <smlu...@gmail.com>
Skickat: den 16 juni 2020 16:44
Till: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

Ämne: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Struggle for the Soul of APC

 

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