Special Correspondent, ONWUKWE EZERU, writes on actions and reactions by interest groups on the High Court judgement on the governorship tussle between Governor Okezie Ikpeazu and Uche Ogah
The Abia State Government House, Umuahia, has been a shadow of itself since Thursday, June 30. In place of the usual human and vehicular traffic in the complex, it has been under serious security watch, as the police and the military take over all the routes leading to the entity.
This is on account of tension occasioned by the Monday, June 27, court judgment sacking Governor Okezie Ikpeazu and the June 30 issuance of certificate of return to Uche Ogah, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja.
Ikpeazu had appealed the High Court verdict. But the issuance of the certificate of return to Ogah, without waiting for the outcome of the appeal, had sparked off confusion and protest among Abians, especially of the Ukwa-Ngwa axis who felt that the removal of the governor was a big slap on them, given that his election marked the first time the zone is in charge of governance in the state.
Ikpeazu gets reprieve
To prevent possible inauguration of Ogah, Ikpeazu’s legal team had on June 30, 2016, obtained an ex-parte order from Osisioma Ngwa High Court restraining him from being sworn in as Governor of Abia State.
Even with what seems a momentary relief for the governor, his supporters had argued that for INEC to have merely complied with the directives of the Federal High Court when it was obvious that the judgment had been challenged at the Court of Appeal amounted to bias and brazen disrespect to judicial process.
Ogah had challenged the declaration of Ikpeazu as governor, alleging that the tax receipts he presented to INEC were fake. When he raised the issue shortly after the party’s primary in 2014, PDP leadership in Abia had tried to wade into the matter but failed following his insistence to go ahead with the matter.
Groups pay solidarity visits
Even as the situation remained dicey last week, groups and PDP party faithful from different parts of the state kept paying solidarity visits to the governor. One of such groups was the PDP leadership in Abia led by its chairman, Johnson Onuigbo, who condemned what he called the brazen disrespect to the rule of law in Nigeria and called for the intervention of well-meaning Nigerians to save democracy from total collapse.
“Abia PDP will resist any attempt by anybody or group to overheat Abia polity. The rule of law should follow its course. The judiciary should give Ikpeazu fair hearing in the appeal court,” he said.
Also, the Abia State House of Assembly led by the Speaker, Martins Azubuike, in its solidarity message to the governor, expressed the members’ support to the administration of the PDP government in Abia.
Abia State Traditional Rulers Council led by its Chairman, Eze Dick Eberechi, also pledged its support to Ikpeazu and called on Ogah to sheathe his sword and wait for the turn of Abia North in the next dispensation if he wants to be governor of Abia.
Abia youths and Abia re-union group were not left out in the pilgrimage, as their leader, Giner Onwusoibe, urged Ikpeazu to relax and continue the good work he started, stressing: “Ogah should stop parading himself as governor when the case in the appeal court has not been vacated.”
The state’s PDP Publicity Secretary, Don Ubani, said that the party was not disturbed by the court action because Ikpeazu was eminently qualified to be the governor, having satisfied all conditions as contained in the Electoral Act. He noted that the governor paid his tax as and when due and described the ruling of the Abuja High Court as a miscarriage of justice.
Ubani advised party faithful in Abia to remain calm, assuring that the appeal court would upturn that judgment.
In similar vein, the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Charles Ogbonnaya, told our correspondent that Abians were not happy over the court’s ruling, noting that Ikpeazu had been receiving a lot of distractions since he won election in 2015.
He remarked that the governor was a public servant whose tax was deducted at source under the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) system.
While the governor’s camp was making vigorous efforts at upturning the High Court ruling, Ogah and his supporters were already on victory lap at his campaign office in Umuwaya Road, Umuahia.
Notwithstanding, the governor, in a press briefing in his lodge at the Government House, declared: “I am still the governor of the state until the appeal court and Supreme Court decide otherwise.”
Ikpeazu goes spiritual
In the face of the unfolding battle, key officials of the state government have gone spiritual to ask God to intervene in the struggle.
In a church service organised at the Unity Chapel, Government House, the President of Eastern Conference of the Seventh Day Adventists, Pastor Bassey Udo, said God has come to redeem Abia, having stopped the alleged plans to swear in Ogah as governor.
“God has intervened to save Ikpeazu and Abia. God has raised a government for Abia. Those who said it was all over would regret. Those who changed loyalty would regret. Ikpeazu, do not soil your hands because victory is yours,” he said.
The governor noted that in the past one year, his administration has been on in the state, but regretted that somebody who did not run an election, campaign nor accepted by Abia public decided to distract the peace of the state through abnormal plans.
He stressed that for the avoidance of doubt, he has been all along working as a civil servant where his taxes were being deducted from his salaries and remitted to Board of Internal Revenue (BIR) as and when due and wondered why the clamour for tax certificate became subject of litigation against his mandate. The governor asked anyone in doubt to verify his claims at the board.
He assured of his administration’s resoluteness towards bringing the expected change in the state, while urging Abians to continue to remain calm in the present circumstances.
In lending voice to Ikpeazu’s position, groups and individuals under the aegis of the Coalition for Civil Society in Abia State in a press statement signed by its chairman, Eze Onuoha, and secretary, Ukoha Iroha, had called on INEC to retrieve the certificate of return given to Ogah, noting that it was given in error. It also urged INEC to apologise to Abians and to all Nigerians in three national dailies.
The group also called on President Muhammadu Buhari, the Senate President and the Chief Justice of the Federation to rise up and defend the laws and constitution of the land, stressing that the democratic process is being threatened by INEC’s actions.
In the same vein, the Supreme Council of Ukwa Ngwa Youths who spoke through its National Coordinator, Kingsley Nnana Okadigbo, and the National Secretary, K. C. Dede, said: “We unequivocally affirm our stance on the popular Abia charter of equity and PDP zoning formula which provides that the governorship seat shall rotate among the three senatorial districts of Abia South, Abia Central and Abia North,” adding that Ogah’s Abia North had had its turn in the governance of the state.