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Okpara: Ogah can’t lay claim to a governorship primary he rejected

By Leo Sobechi
31 July 2016   |   1:14 am
We do not have any power struggle in Abia PDP. Some people want short cuts or are desperate to achieve their aims. So, because somebody has made a mistake, jumped the gun or is hasty or impatient; or because he is acting in contempt of the court...

James-Okpara

Barrister James Okpara a member of the Abia State executive council spoke to journalists, including Leo Sobechi, on why Ogah cannot benefit from a process he despised.

Would you say the current confusion over Abia State governorship is not as a result of the unfinished PDP primary election?
We do not have any power struggle in Abia PDP. Some people want short cuts or are desperate to achieve their aims. So, because somebody has made a mistake, jumped the gun or is hasty or impatient; or because he is acting in contempt of the court, doesn’t mean there is power tussle in Abia State. We are in a democracy. A democratic contest does not mean power struggle, because everybody has the right to pursue whatever it is that will suit his personal ambition. It was a democratic contest that was conducted in the PDP primaries and Dr. Uche Ogah and Barrister Friday Nwosu lost while Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu won. Nwosu got about four or five votes, Ogah got over100 (103), while Dr Okezie got more than 400, close to 500 votes. So, there was a contest; a legitimate contest, somebody lost, somebody won.

Unfortunately, we live in a state where people believe that wealth is might or wealth is right; where the rich believe that if what they want does not come to fruition, then there is no democracy; but the results of the primary was a confirmation that Abians want equity. You know that of the three senatorial districts in Abia, Abia North and Abia Central had taken a bite and so the good people of Abia decided that it would be fair to allow Abia South, where Nwosu and Okezie come from to produce the governor. Uche Ogah is from Abia North, from the old Bende.

Are you saying that the fact Ogah comes from Abia North and having come second during the primaries vitiates his claims to the seat; why did the party not resolve the matter before the primary?
It is a question of democracy. It’s not a case of forcing somebody. We are talking about party decision. For a loyal party man, if your party takes a decision, you accept it; and don’t forget that rotation is in the constitution of PDP; it’s not only Uche Ogah, in fact, in Abia State today, some people may believe that the old Bende group do not want an Ukwa Ngwa man to be governor. Some dismiss this as a mere allegation, but when you look at it, all the people that contested the election, apart from Friday Nwosu, are from Old Bende: Uche Ogah, Alex Otti, the PPA’s candidate. They are all from old Bende of Abia North.

I am talking of the current perception; that old Bende people of Abia North do not want an Ukwa Ngwa person to be governor. Before Otti went to APGA, he was in PDP. So, the biggest problem we have in Abia now is that the average Ukwa Ngwa person in Aba, in Obingwa, in Obiohia, now believes that the entire old Bende does not want Ngwa person to ever taste (governorship) power. That is the biggest challenge in Abia today; not the legal challenge of Dr. Ogah, which we know is baseless, as he has no leg to stand on.

So, when you contemplate the socio-economic and political implication of the development; that people from Aba, which is the commercial heartbeat of Igboland; this same Abia South that makes us the oil producing state, which we are, it becomes troubling. It is this same area that the majority of the people from old Bende live and do business in Aba; then our sons, because of obscene wealth and selfish ambition, are determined that Abia will not rest until one of them becomes governor no matter, how it is done. Elections have been held, somebody lost and somebody won.

The Supreme Court has ruled on this. Now, if you even want to talk about the legal challenges, you can even say that Friday Nwosu has half leg to stand on, because he didn’t reject the result of the primaries, but Dr. Ogah rejected the results of the primary. He refused to sign the result. He wrote a petition to the national headquarters of PDP to cancel the primaries and to conduct a new one. It is the same primary that he rejected that is the foundation of his purported claim to the governorship of Abia. The law is clear that he who comes to equity must come with clean hands. You cannot approbate and reprobate at the same time. The mere fact that he rejected the primaries disqualifies him; its elementary law.

Are you talking about moral shortcoming or burden of law?
No! This is law; I am not sure this issue was canvassed before Justice Abang. But it was canvassed in Owerri and the judge there said he was disqualified. It is the judgment of a court that he (Ogah) stands disqualified because he rejected the result of the primaries. It is important to note that Ogah cannot benefit from the PDP primary, because he rejected the result of the primary, wrote a petition to the National Headquarters to cancel the primary and refused to sign the result sheet.

In law, his action amounts to approbating and reprobating at the same time. Also, the claim that Okezie made false statements and alleging that he committed crime, the standard of proof is beyond reasonable doubt. This is because candidates make those claims under oath and any false information given on oath is perjury. The standard of proof in perjury is beyond reasonable doubt.

Coming to the current legal challenge, the argument is that once the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) gives a new person Certificate of Return, it implies that it has withdrawn the one it earlier issued. What is the correct situation?
We do not have two governors in Abia. The truth is that what INEC did was mischievous; it was fraudulent. It was a local 419 that they did. First of all, INEC gave Certificate of Return to Uche Ogah, but the issue at stake is PDP primaries. It is not INEC election. The extant law now in Nigeria is that only the parties can decide who their candidates are.

Also, the position of the electoral law is that somebody who did not participate in the process of an election cannot be sworn-in. It is the fallout of the Amaechi case. The candidate of PDP in the last governorship election in Abia State was Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, not Dr. Uche Ogah. Ogah did not contest in the governorship election. So, on what basis are you now saying swear him in? You have, in so doing, invalidated your law, which states clearly that if you did not contest, you cannot be sworn-in.

Is Ogah no longer a member of PDP?
Did Ogah contest the election? Ogah contested the PDP primary and lost. He rejected it and PDP went ahead to contest in the governorship election. It is a court that is now trying to pick him as the candidate of PDP and as the state governor, forgetting that the law demands that before someone can be sworn-in, he must have participated in the election processes, which Ogah did not do. Even the Certificate of Return that INEC issued to Ogah was issued in bad faith, because you cannot issue certificate of return for an election you did not conduct. The owner of PDP primary election is PDP, not INEC and the issue here is PDP primary, not the governorship election which INEC conducted and yet INEC went and issued a certificate of return to someone who did not participate in the governorship election, contrary to INEC’s law. On what basis did INEC do this? If this is not a coup, tell me what a coup is.

In his case Ogah accused Ikpeazu of fraudulent claims in his tax records while Friday Nwosu allegedly claimed that the governor presented fake tax clearance or so; what is the actual case?
I don’t think you need to be a lawyer to know that the judgment by Justice Abang is discredited. It is not meritorious. The judge went on a voyage of discovery and he didn’t give Ikpeazu fair hearing at all.

You need to read the judgments of the Owerri Federal High Court, in the case filed by Nwosu and that of the Abuja Federal High Court filed by Ogah. The facts of the two cases are the same, but the judgments are different. In Owerri, Nwosu accused Ikpeazu of forgery, while Ogah, in Abuja, accused the governor of presenting false information. On the face of it, one is criminal while the other is civil. Forgery is criminal, while false information, on the face of it, may be a civil offence.

But when you look at it, every election form filled by any politician or public servant for a post is under oath. Okezie filled the alleged form under oath at the Aba High Court. So, what is perjury? It simply means giving false information under oath; lying on oath. So, if you have accused Okezie of perjury, the standard of proof must be the standard of proof in criminal cases, which is beyond reasonable doubts. But that was not the basis of judgment in Abuja. The judge did not require Ogah, did not tell Ogah to prove his case beyond all reasonable doubts, whereas in Owerri, the judge told Nwosu that this is a criminal allegation, therefore you must prove it beyond all reasonable doubts.

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