Last week, the Justice Suleiman Ambrosa election petition tribunal which heard the Rivers governorship election petition in Abuja, sacked Barr Nyesom Wike as governor of the state and ordered a fresh poll within 90 days. Similarly, another tribunal on Monday October 27 sacked the Speaker of Rivers House of Assembly alongside 21 lawmakers, all members of the PDP. In the light of this development, Emeka Nze examines how the judgment will impact on the PDP and the nation’s political system at large.
Going by Justice Suleiman Ambrosa’s ruling in Abuja at the weekend which nullified the election of Barrister Nyesom Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and ordered INEC to conduct fresh elections in Rivers State within 90 days, analysts can be apt to say the stage was set by the dramatic performance of the returning officer for Rivers state, Prof Etu-Efeotor of the University of Petroleum Resources, Efurum who wrote or had the presidential results written for him under some ‘special conditions.’
The Prof had mounted the stage, wobbling and fumbling with the script which he claimed was written in his own handwriting when the then Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof Jega enquired. Etu-Efeotor made futile attempt to decipher “his own writing” to the chagrin of Nigerians and the entire world, prompting Prof Jega to ask. Still unsure of what to say, the Prof replied in affirmative but added that he had authored it ‘under special condition.’
Till date, the wonder is yet to abate at what the special conditions could be. But it did not take long when the APC’s petitions challenging the victory of PDP at the presidential polls started pouring in. Since PDP was roundly defeated and its flag bearer, Dr Goodluck Jonathan surrendered, even before the collation was completed, it became unnecessary to deeply examine the returning officer’s behaviour or look into the petitions.
Those events were however expected as Rivers state posed a cynosure of the eyes of Nigerians in the build up of the 2015 general elections. The volatility of Rivers state was the usual hostility between the state politician’s one side and the Abuja politicians on the other. Two hitherto political associates the then governor of the state, Rt. Hon Rotimi Amaechi and his brother had parted ways due to the rivalry which developed between the former President, Dr Jonathan and the then Governor Amaechi. The cold war saw Amaechi alongside other four governors exit the PDP and moved into the then opposition, APC. Like many Niger Deltans Wike a ministerial appointee under Jonathan did not take kindly to Amaechi’s affront and challenge of the then President and buoyed by his ambition to take over the reins of leadership in Rivers, quickly took sides with the former president in the conflict.
Back in Port Harcourt, Amaechi had promised to bequeath power to the Riverine Ijaw who agitated that power had resided in the Upland for too long. Dakuku Peterside was the anointed one on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC). Expectedly the APC, by the choice of a Riverine candidate, ought to attract sympathy and many people indeed banked that the election in Rivers state promised to be a tough battle as Wike another dogged fighter was flying the flag of the PDP.
Going by the Presidential election, it was almost like a walkover against the APC. The tough fight expected from the then opposition party as the presidential result showed no indication that APC was a power to be reckoned with in the state. As the governorship election approached, more petitions poured against the Rivers State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Ms Gesilia Khan who was accused of taking sides with the PDP in the state. Although there was a hues and cries by the Rivers state APC and other political parties to remove her, that agitation was ignored by the INEC and after the polls more petitions against her mounted after the gubernatorial elections.
If the results of the presidential and National Assembly elections were overwhelmingly in favour of PDP, those of the governorship elections were tailored to give authenticity to the earlier presidential election as the PDP scored 1,029102 representing 87.77% while the runners-up APC’s Dakuku Peterside polled only 124,896 representing 10.65% and the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Tonye Princewill with his 10,142 representing 0.86% came a distant third position. The volatility of the state was brought to bear as Rivers became one of the states that recorded deaths on the day of the gubernatorial elections. There were also protests in the state and outside it. Recall that some of the APC stalwarts during a peaceful protest against the results of the governorship polls at the headquarters of INEC were reportedly tear-gassed.
When a Coalition of Political Parties which united against PDP in the state visited on April 1, 2015 in protest to INEC headquarters in Abuja, they were armed with a petition entitled: “Demand for the Removal of Ms Gesila Khan as the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Rivers State.” The petition read in part: “We refer, sir, to earlier petition to your office on the need to cancel and reschedule the March 28, 2015 presidential and National Assembly Elections in Rivers state on the grounds amongst others: that they were characterised by Independent Electoral Commission (INEC’s) collusion with one of the opposition parties in Rivers state, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to compromise the process and which did compromise the process.”
The Coalition of Political Parties further accused Khan thus: “The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) was hand in gloves with the perpetrators of the activities that led to the impugning the integrity of the election as it is clear to all objective observers that without her complicity in the activities, the subversion of the electoral process would not have been possible.”
The APC governorship candidate Peterside therefore going by his petition had argued that the elections were marred by unauthenticated alterations in forms EC8A, issuance of ballot papers in excess of 100 leaves per booklet, one PDP collation agent signing for several wards, presiding officers signing for party agents, voter signing for party agents and absence of collation at ward collation centres and many more.
Counsel to petitioners, chief Akin olujimi also argued that the resort to manual accreditation lacked legal justification when INEC had directed that card readers should be exclusively used for accreditation. The respondents Wike, his party PDP and INEC who jointly called 40 witnesses urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition on the grounds that it was constituted by unfounded allegations which the petitioners failed to establish. But the tribunal believed that the petitioner proved his case thereby nullifying the elections and ordering for fresh polls within 90 days as stipulated by the electoral act as amended.
Since Saturday’s ruling, the PDP’s outburst in reaction to the ruling coupled with that of Akwa-Ibom which ordered fresh elections in certain areas has been least surprising, suggestive of verdicts influenced by the APC government. In its first statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, it says “President Buhari is not equipped to lead in a democracy.”
This was followed by another where Metuh called on well-meaning members of the party and supporter to resist the tribunal ruling
He stated: “The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) raises a rallying cry to all its members, supporters and lovers of democracy across the country to rise up and use all lawful means to resist anti-democratic forces, now using the judiciary and security agencies in their desperate scheme to subvert the will of the people and destroy the nation’s democracy. The party said though it seeks peace, it is not ready to accept the peace of a graveyard, neither is it willing to surrender the mandate freely given to it by the people in any part of the country, particularly in Rivers, Akwa-Ibom, Delta, Abia, Taraba and other states where it won in the last general elections.
“Let it be known, and clearly too, that no matter the strong-arming, threats and manipulations by the APC government, the PDP is not willing to, and will never surrender the mandate freely given to us by the people in states where we won in the last general elections, neither are the people of those states willing to allow sectional invaders to exert influence on those to be in charge of their affairs.
“The PDP said the desperation so far exhibited by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC government in manipulating sensitive agencies of state like the judiciary and the security to further its bid to take over the rich states of Rivers, Akwa-Ibom and Delta is totally against the spirit of democracy and peace bestowed by the PDP in conceding defeat at the Presidential election, but instead, an affront to the people and recipe for crisis in the polity.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) declares the verdict of the River state governorship election tribunal sitting in Abuja, was a clear bias against Governor Nyesom Wike and the PDP, describing it further as completely bizarre, unacceptable and part of the script by the APC to manipulate In another statement the party said indications to this spurious judgment had months ago been hinted to the PDP, which in turn, alerted the nation and the international community of the heinous plot by the APC government, to use the judiciary and various security agencies to reverse the victory of the PDP in Rivers, Delta, Akwa-Ibom, Taraba and Abia states.
The party invited Nigerians and the international community to recall various reprehensible steps taken by the APC government that culminated in this ruling as well as the ridiculous Wednesday’s verdict of the Akwa-Ibom state governorship election tribunal, also sitting in Abuja.
While pointing to what it called the ‘curious and controversial relocation of the elections tribunals from their states to Abuja without any justification’, it noted that the constant juggling of judicial officers and members of elections tribunal in PDP states, especially, Rivers and Akwa-Ibom states.
The party alleged that the recent mass transfer of security operatives, especially the DSS and police personnel that actually participated in the conduct of the elections in Rivers and Akwa-Ibom, ostensibly to frustrate the course of genuine evidences in the process.
Going by the PDP threats to resist the alleged takeover of the states, Nigerians are worried that the unfolding scenario may spark off another round of tension orchestrated by the already overheat in the polity.
