HALF SCALE JUDGMENT!

The air wave is saturated with the news of the removal of Governor Celestine Omehia of

Rivers State. Yours truly is also glad but beyond the first flash of emotional ecstasy, one is forced to read deep and evaluate.

The second leg of the judgment is one I have found hard to swallow. What are the bases under which the Supreme Court imposed Ex Speaker Rotimi Amechi as governor of

Rivers State?

Rotimi Amechi, did not contest the April general election. All he did was contest the PDP primaries, which the Supreme Court was right to declare him the rightful PDP candidate for the election.

As a result of the infighting in PDP, they fielded another candidate who did contest and “won” in the person of Celestine Omehia.

The questions arising from the imposition of Rotimi Amechi are these; is PDP primaries synonymous to general election? Can the Supreme Court declare a candidate who did not contest an election the winner? What are the fates of the petitioners against the election of Celestine Omehia?

The Supreme Court has given January 2008 as date to give reason(s) for their judgment but before then, these issues have to be examined.

Rotimi Amechi, did not contest the gubernatorial election in

Rivers State and it is a trite position of the electoral Act that a candidate must be sponsored by a political party. The voting /electioneering process in

Nigeria is based on individual/party affiliation. No individual goes to the polls without the backing of a party, same applies to a party. So what is the base of Supreme Court to award PDP’s victory to Rotimi Amechi?

Some electorates wouldn’t have voted PDP had Rotimi Amechi been the flag bearer at the April polls. This would have swelled the votes of other political parties in the election and may have tilted the scale of victory in favour of AC, ANPP, Labour and other social clubs, masquerading as political parties that contested the election.

This is the case in

Imo State, a PDP incumbent State that lost to an unknown PPA. The Imo PDP, encouraged their party members to vote against PDP instead of allowing Senator Ifeanyi Ararume, a Supreme Court imposed candidate on PDP to win. With hindsight on Nigerian political godfatherism, one can say that Amechi/PDP would have lost the April guber elections and Rivers PDP would have formed a new alliance with any party who sure would have won.

This Supreme Court judgment has robbed other candidates their rights and Supreme Court being next to God, to who do these aggrieved candidates appeal to? Or hasRotimi Amechi gone to heaven through the back door.

One would have thought that the example set in

Kebbi State, would have been give a seal of approval by the Supreme Court. Though I disagree with the

Kebbi State ruling. If a student gets first position in class by reason of fraud, cheating or undue influence, the natural thing to do, is to strip the cheat of the victory and elevate the 2^nd position to 1^st. The Olympic Games did this in the case of Ben Jonson and added to the gold medals of Carl Lewis.

The aggrieved candidates should commence a fresh suit against Rotimi Amechi at the tribunal and contest that he didn’t contest election and therefore should be removed as governor and the candidate that came second, be announced winner. The law is an ass and any smart Balaam can ride and the law can allow injustice so long as the just refuses to challenge it. Or as lawyers will say, the court is not a Father Christmas, she can offer you only what you ask.

I hope the Tribunal chairman will not hide under the 30 days rule within which to file a petition and fore close the other parties from bringing a fresh petition against Rotimi Amaechi.

Or is the Supreme Court telling Nigerians that once you win PDP primaries, INEC conducted election is merely to fulfill all righteousness and justify the foreign donors’ dollars toward a “peaceful” transition of government in

Africa. Or is this ruling a feather punch at PDP. None of the rulings have given outright victory to the opponents of PDP at the election. Sure these rulings are beginning to sound like Perambulation. The number of PDP governors has not been depleted.

Nigerians are quick to celebrate the judiciary once the judgment is in their favour, forgetting that Justice must be seen to have been done and there are other parties affected by a judgment, who may not see the justice in this judgment.

Che

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