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42 — Vanguard, TUESDAY APRIL 2, 2019
OSUN GOV: Unending dust
over tribunal verdict
By Olayinka Ajayi
TEN days after the Governorship
Election Petitions Tribunal in
Osun annulled the election of Mr
Gboyega Oyetola of the All
Progressives Congress, APC, and
declared Senator Ademola Adeleke
of the Peoples Democratic Party,
PDP, as winner of the poll, the
verdict is still raising dust in the
polity.
In separate chats with
Vanguard, some lawyers differed
on the judgement. Among those
who spoke with Vanguard are Mr
Femi Falana, SAN; and Mr
Malachy Ugwummadu.
In what was described as a ‘split
judgement’, the tribunal in its
ruling, ordered the Independent
National Electoral Commission
INEC, to immediately issue Adeleke
with Certificate of Return, declaring
him as the duly elected governor.
The panel agreed that PDP and
Adeleke established beyond
reasonable doubt that INEC did not
comply substantially with the
Electoral Act in 17 polling units.
The chairman of the Tribunal,
Justice Ibrahim Sirajo upheld the
whole election. However, in the
majority judgement delivered by
Justice Peter Obiora, the tribunal set
aside the rerun election conducted
on September 27, 2018 for being
unlawful.
Justice Obiora held that the poll
conducted in the seven units is
unknown by law because INEC has
no power to conduct it.
Consequently, over 2,000 votes
credited to the APC and Governor
Oyetola by INEC were deducted by
By Polycarp Nwafor
Mr. Matthew Ugwueze is a member,
representing Igboeze South LGA
in Enugu State House of Assembly. He
is the Chairman House Committee on
Education, Science, and Technology.
In this interview, he speaks on his time
at the Assembly, the 2019 general
elections and the reason politicians in
the state who lost at the polls should
not subject the outcome of the elections
to litigation.
How would you describe your
outing as a politician and as a
representative of your people?
It has been a successful outing and
I give due glory to God for His mercies.
Considering my poor background and
looking back at all that I went through
growing up, I have every course to be
eternally grateful to God, the good
people of Igbo-Eze South, our leader,
the Governor of Enugu State, Ifeanyi
Ugwuanyi, and the Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP, for giving me
the opportunity to serve and for
standing by me through and through.
Is there any bill to your credit that
you hold dear to heart?
There is a host of them but to address
the question succinctly, it would be the
Amendment of Education Law cap 37
of Enugu State, which had been
grossly outdated. We had inherited the
bill from the then Eastern Regional
Government when the education
policy stipulated that all that was to
be paid by a private school was N20.
You can imagine how obsolete such
law had become. So, we worked on
the law to bring it to the realities of
present-day Nigeria.
After you lost re-election bid at the
primaries and it became obvious that
you would not be part of the 9th
Assembly in Enugu, it was surprising
•Adeleke
the tribunal, and over 1,000 votes
said to have been scored by the PDP
and its candidate were also removed
from their total votes.
The majority judgement held that
the returning officer, Prof. Joseph
Fuwape, who cancelled the result in
the affected units for the September
22 election after the announcement
had no power to have done so.
Fuwape maintained that the
election was inconclusive because
3,498 votes were cancelled as a
result of ballot box snatching that
occurred in some polling units
during the election.
The affected polling units were
Ife North (one polling unit), Ife
south (two polling units),
Orolu,(three polling units) and
Osogbo, one polling unit.
According to Fuwape, Senator
Adeleke scored 254,698 votes while
Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola got 254,
345 votes. He thus called for rerun
elections at the polling units where
results were cancelled.
The majority judgement after
deductions of the votes recorded in
the rerun poll gave Adeleke’s score
as 253,777 and Oyetola’s as
253,476.
ENUGU: 'Why challenging Ugwuanyi’s
victory’ll be futile exercise'
that you did not revolt as is
synonymous with the average
Nigerian politician. Why did you
choose to work for your party instead?
The slogan of our state under the
current administration is that Enugu
is in the hand of God. That implies that
everything about the state and in the
state is in God’s hands. Therefore, my
present and political future are in
God’s hand. So, there was no need to
revolt.
To me, it was the will of God. I came
here with the full realization that I
would not be a House member forever.
Inasmuch as I had desired to serve my
people further, the position is not my
birthright. So, I give God the glory for
allowing me, son of a poor farmer, the
opportunity to serve as a legislator in
Enugu state. However, as a human
being, I would not pretend that I did
not feel bad at the time.
Then you were later compensated
with an appointment as Coordinator
of Gburugburu re-election Campaign
Organisation for Igbo-Eze South?
No, no! The fact was that they found
me worthy to serve in that capacity and
not that I lost out at the primary
election. Was I the only one that did
not triumph at our party’s primaries?
But to be honest, that engagement
enabled me to put issues that were
associated with the primaries behind
me faster.
I threw myself into the assignment
and that was why till now, many people
are still congratulating me for winning
the election ignorant of the fact that I
was not the candidate after all. So, I
never showed any sign of anger
because, as I said, someone must leave
for someone to emerge. So, I would
continue to work for PDP, to support
our hard-working governor and my
people, while leaving tomorrow firmly
•Ugwueze
•Oyetola
in God’s hand.
The result of the 2019 election
showed that Igbo-Eze South Local
Government Area, recorded highest
votes ever in her history, and
incidentally, that happened under
your leadership as campaign
coordinator; how did you achieve
that?
We ascribe all our successes to God
who gives strength and wisdom.
However, we did not achieve that feat
via a one-man show but through the
collective efforts of our stakeholders,
especially the Chairman of the council
area, Hon. Fidelis Odo, who gave us a
lot of support, encouragement, and
partnership. We did not suffer any sort
of interference from him.
Our NASS members, Senator
Chuka Utazi and Rt Hon Patrick
Asadu, as well as Chief Ikeje Asogwa
and many others, were also
tremendous in their support to us.
There was unity of purpose, mutual
Controversial Minority
judgment
However, a controversy ensued
via the minority judgment, in
which Justice Ibrahim Sirajo, the
chairman of the tribunal, held that
the petitioners, PDP and Adeleke
did not prove how the noncompliance
of non-recording in
the columns of accredited votes
and account of ballots in the
result sheets substantially affected
the final results.
He stated that even when non
substantial compliance affects the
outcome of the election, the tribunal,
respect, and collective hard work
throughout the process, and that
earned us over 38,000 votes, to become
third in Enugu state vote rating, the
highest ever in the council area, like
you rightly noted.
So, as the campaign coordinator, it
is a thing to cheer about. But more
importantly, we are grateful to
candidate Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi for
making campaign job easy for us
through his superlative governance.
We did not have to ruffle feathers to
mobilize our people because the
governor had already become a
household name before the election.
That was the case in the rest of the
LGAs.
So, I use this medium to appeal to
our people to continue to pray for and
support the governor.
Let our people calm down and
partner with the governor to take our
state to the next level of peace,
development, inclusive and peopleoriented
governance. I appeal to those
that lost in the election not to distract
the government with litigation.
We can only have one governor at a
time and the future belongs to God.
The governor’s first tenure was
subjected to unending litigation which
was later settled at the Supreme Court
after over three and half years.
That was almost four years of
distraction to the government with
attendant colossal economic loss and
deprivation to the state and her
citizens. Let us not waste our time and
resources by subjecting the results of
the election to litigation. This is the first
time a governor is developing both
rural areas and the city at the same
time. Ugwuanyi has touched all the
17 local government areas in terms of
infrastructure development, just as he
is touching all the communities in the
state via, Visit Every Community, VEC.
by virtue of section 140(2) of the
Electoral Act, does not have the
power to subtract the votes
affected by the non-compliance
from the scores of the candidates
and announce a winner.
According to him the tribunal only
has the power to nullify the results
of the Polling units affected by the
noncompliance and order a
supplementary poll. He concluded
that even if the non-compliance was
substantial, it was not proved by the
petitioners.
Panel being divided is not
unusual – Falana
Speaking on the controversial
verdict, Right activist, Mr. Femi
Falana, SAN, said that divergent
decision in a tribunal is inevitable
saying: “Is that the first time an
election would be annulled in
Nigeria? Panel being divided is not
unusual? The court of appeal is clear
about that . So it is not unusual.
Professionally, I have not read the
judgement yet, as I have been away
for sometime. So I will have to read
the judgement before I can further
make comment.’’
You don’t nullify an election
without declaring a winner –
Comrade Ugwummadu
However, President of the
Committee for the Defence of
Human Right, CDHR, Barrister
Malachy Ugwummadu stressed that
it would be unsafe for the electoral
panel to nullify the election without
declaring a winner. Quoting section
140 sub section 2 and 3 of the
electoral act 2010 Electoral Act, he
said: “There is what is called
consequential order. The effect of
nullifying an election will be more
dangerous without a consequential
order of what happens after that. I
am referencing section 140 sub
section 2 and 3 of the electoral act
2010. If the court comes to the
verdict. for instance, a candidate
who was declared winner and
returned was not qualified as a
winner, what the court does is to call
for a rerun. If it on the basis of the
candidate declared as a winner
scored the majority lawful votes,
what the court does in this
circumstance, is to declare the
second person the winner. So you
don’t just nullify an election without
declaring a winner, that would
create serious void and problems. So
the court was proper by the verdict
made in Osun”.
“However, the divided verdict the
tribunal had is normal. In fact, it is
the beauty of a court system unlike
what we have in conventional high
court. The beauty of our judicial
system is that as the case graduates,
it moves from magistrate to high
court, federal high court, to the
supreme court, the number of judges
increases. It is because the
jurisprudence that would be
expected would be more profound,
more thorough and better discharged
when you have up to three or more
judges dealing with the facts of the
case. So if you have three, there are
instances and in most cases where
they come up with unanimous
discussions, but there are also
instances which we have dissenting
decisions . That is, the decision that
does not agree with the popular
decision. whereas he has given his
decision , it does not mean that that
is the judgement of the court. It
becomes the minority opinion. So
what transpired in Osun election
tribunal is normal. Before judges take
a decision, they have a conference
with the law to review the arguments
of counsels, they evaluate the
evidence, come up with there
reasoning. What the verdict imply is
that the rule of law does not respect
any person or political party. whereas
you are at liberty to force your way
through, if you do not comply with
the enabling constitution of the
country, guideline of the INEC, you
are likely going to have the
implication such as this. You may
have put something on nothing and
you expect it to stand. So political
parties must learn and play by the
rules.”