Andy Uba, the controversial former domestic aide to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, today lost his case at the special election's appeals panel made up of Court of Appeal justices sitting in Enugu. Spontaneous and widespread celebration broke out in the streets of Enugu and Anambra States as soon as word spread about Uba’s latest humiliating defeat.
The five-judge panel led by Justice J. Sylvanus Ngwuta unanimously dismissed Uba’s application to be declared Anambra’s “governor-in-waiting” based on the fraudulent electoral exercise conducted by the Professor Maurice Iwu-led electoral commission in April 2007.
“The justices have finally rescued their names from ignominy and Anambra from a serious constitutional crisis,” said a lawyer who was present in court to hear the panel announce its decision.
The lawyer further stated that several reports by Saharareporters exposing massive behind-the-scene corrupt deals between Uba and some of the justices led to a massive public outcry, including a threat by Ikemba Nnewi, Emeka Odimegwu Ojukwu, who said the country could be embroiled in another civil war should the justices sell the judgment to Uba.
Our earlier investigation, which included information from sources within the Enugu Division of the court, indicated that the majority of justices on the panel had planned to deliver a favorable judgment to Uba. But following our revelations, the panel could not sit last week since the justices feared serious public reprisals in the tension-soaked southeast if Uba was declared governor. Also, Saharareporters reported that two of the judges, Mrs. Kudirat Kekere Ekun and Mr. Paul Galinje, did not accept to be part of the deal brokered by outgoing President of the Court of Appeal, Umaru Abdullahi, Uba’s lead counsel, Wole Olanipekun (who also represented Yar’adua in the presidential elections case), and Andy Uba.
Our sources revealed that today's judgment turned decisively against Uba, when a third justice, Abdul Aboki, switched sides and went against Uba, thus ending a majority support for the rogue politician. The justices who presided over the case flew into Enugu last night from a judges’ retreat in Obudu Cattle Ranch in Cross Rivers State.
A source within the court told Saharareporters that Mr. Olanipekun was absent in court today as one of the justices had forewarned him that his client’s case was going to collapse. In court was a senior advocate, Amaechi Mwaiwu, representing the Independent National Electoral Commission. INEC had played a sneaky role in Uba’s latest legal battle, seeking to persuade the court to uphold Uba’s fraud-ridden election. INEC chairman Maurice Iwu is a well-known supporter of Uba’s ambition to become governor.
We had reported on several occasions that Andy Uba and his elder brother, Ugochukwu, were responsible for persuading Obasanjo to nominate Iwu for the INEC post where he conducted a round of elections universally condemned as the worst in human history.
In handing out its verdict today, the panel told Uba in clear terms that his application lacked merit.
“Today's judgment has put an end—a welcome finality—to Uba's dry runs to return to Anambra State as governor,” said another lawyer, a senior advocate of Nigeria, speaking from Lagos.
However, a source close to Uba had told Saharareporters early yesterday that the former presidential aide had told some of his closest associates of his intention “to make another try at the Supreme Court once Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu takes over as the Chief Justice early next year.” The source said Uba is counting on his “rapport” with Justice Katsina-Alu.
However, a source within the apex court said Justice Katsina-Alu was highly unlikely to “take up Uba’s case any time soon,” adding that the cost to the reputation of the Supreme Court “would be too grave to contemplate.” He predicted an open mutiny of justices if anybody, even the future chief justice, attempts to bring in Uba’s case again under any guise.
Today’s resounding defeat for Uba marks the sixth time Nigerian courts would unanimously reject his judicial efforts to buy his way back to Anambra as governor after justices of the Supreme Court ruled that his two-week stint as governor of the state was an anomaly.
A lawyer in Abuja told Saharareporters this morning that she was ashamed of unscrupulous lawyers “who have accepted Uba’s briefs to facilitate Uba’s numerous ill-advised forays to the courts,” adding that “a senior lawyer like Chief Olanipekun ought to have advised Uba against the reckless action of asking the Court of Appeal to, in effect, overrule the Supreme Court which had determined that Uba’s so-called election was a nullity.”
Uba had spent “more than $100 million” in his futile bid to regain the governor’s seat, according to a source close to him. The source added that judges always promised him a positive outcome, “but they always shocked him by dismissing his petitions.”
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