Faced with shaky prospects of emerging as the PDP gubernatorial candidate in Anambra State, former presidential domestic aide Emmanuel Nnamdi (Andy) Uba has stepped up efforts to induce appellate court justices to smuggle him into Government House, Awka via judicial fiat.
Saharareporters has learned that a desperate Mr. Uba has hired Mr. Wole Olanipekun – Umaru Yar’adua’s lead lawyer in the presidential election case – to take his case before the Court of Appeal in Enugu.
On September 10, Mr. Olanipekun filed a motion at the appellate court seeking an order to declare that Mr. Uba was properly elected as governor on April 14, 2007. In the fresh motion, which lists the Independent Electoral Commission among more than 650 respondents, Uba’s lawyers gave notice of their client’s withdrawal of an earlier motion the former domestic aide filed on 29th, June 2009.
The new motion asks that the court uphold “the election of the Appellant/Applicant as Governor of Anambra State”. It also prays that the court vary its judgment of 18th February, 2008 in order to sustain the certificate of return issued to Mr. Uba by INEC on or about 20th April, 2007.
Mr. Uba, a failed California-based entrepreneur who raked up a stupendous fortune during the eight years he served as former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s closest confidante and loot manager, is also seeking an order to bar the electoral commission “from conducting any fresh Governorship election in Anambra State until the Appellant/Applicant completes his term of office as the Governor of that State pursuant to his election to the office of the Governor of Anambra on 14th April, 2007.”
In asking the appellate court to uphold Uba’s election, the motion argues, “No court as to date has set aside or nullified the election and the return of the Appellant/Applicant.”
An Abuja-based lawyer described the motion’s claim as “disingenuous.” He argued that the Supreme Court’s verdict that the electoral commission should never have conducted the governorship election in Anambra in 2007, since Governor Peter Obi had not completed his tenure, “amounted to a clear and unambiguous nullification of said election.” The lawyer noted that only appellate court justices “with an absurdly myopic reading of the apex court’s ruling would essay to make a ruling that would essentially invalidate a verdict of the Supreme Court.” The lawyer, a senior advocate of Nigeria, said he and a growing number of lawyers were disturbed by the haste with which senior lawyers like Olanipekun encouraged Uba to proceed with his quest to badger the judiciary into handing the governorship to him by any means.
“Chief Justice Kutigi had occasion to rebuke Uba’s lawyers the last time the man appeared before the Supreme Court,” said the lawyer. “Now another group of Senior Advocates have escorted Uba to the Court of Appeal in Enugu.”
A source familiar with the case told Saharareporters that Uba’s strategy is to use lawyers who are versed in handing out cash to corrupt judges and justices. “Chief Olanipekun is notorious in this regard,” said the source.
Another source close to Uba said the former presidential aide, who passes himself off as “Dr” even though he does not hold any earned or honorary degrees, has decided to invest “anything it takes to win the case in court instead of going for another election.” He added that Uba was aware that too many politicians in Anambra as well as other parts of Nigeria – including many aggrieved with Mr. Obasanjo – were determined to frustrate his efforts to become the PDP’s gubernatorial flag bearer for the governorship election INEC has set for February 6, 2010.
Last week, another source close to Uba told Saharareporters that the former aide during Obasanjo’s presidency was counting on Umaru Yar’adua’s assistance to snatch up the governorship ticket. Uba reportedly told his closest associates that, since he was chiefly instrumental in persuading Obasanjo to adopt Yar’adua as the ruling party’s presidential candidate, he expected Mr. Yar’adua to return a favor to him.
Speaking to us today, the source said that the entry of controversial former Central Bank Governor, Charles Soludo, into the gubernatorial fray has led Uba to “strengthen his legal team.”
The source said that, whilst Uba remained confident of getting Yar’adua’s endorsement, the former presidential aide was a little rattled when he saw that some persons close to Yar’adua or his wife, Turai, seemed to have gravitated towards Soludo – a man who amassed tremendous wealth by overlooking sharp practices by captains of Nigeria’s banks.
Uba and Soludo used to be very close in the Obasanjo days, with the CBN governor often deferential to Uba due to the aide’s closeness to the former president. Uba has told associates that, but for his interventions, Soludo could not have been appointed CBN governor, or lasted through his first term.
According to a source close to Uba, things began to fall apart between Soludo and Uba when the former presidential aide refused to “sponsor Soludo’s relative who eyed a legislative post.”
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