As the beseigned governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, jetted back into the country over the weekend from yet another vacation, this time in Ethopia, he stormed a champagne-stocked Government House Makurdi anticipating a Supreme Court dismissal of ACN gubernatorial candidate, Professor Steve Ugbah’s challenge to his highly contentious victory. Most people believe Ugbah won the election handily, and since INEC’s declaration of Suswam as the winnder of the elections, legal challenges from all corners have ensued alleging monumental electoral fraud, and even forgery of the governor WAEC certificate. Governor Suswam has weathered every single allegation by evading justice every which way.
As the beseigned governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, jetted back into the country over the weekend from yet another vacation, this time in Ethopia, he stormed a champagne-stocked Government House Makurdi anticipating a Supreme Court dismissal of ACN gubernatorial candidate, Professor Steve Ugbah’s challenge to his highly contentious victory. Most people believe Ugbah won the election handily, and since INEC’s declaration of Suswam as the winnder of the elections, legal challenges from all corners have ensued alleging monumental electoral fraud, and even forgery of the governor WAEC certificate. Governor Suswam has weathered every single allegation by evading justice every which way.
So it stands to reason that Government House Makurdi should be on the bursting at the seems for yet another raucus party as Governor Suswam and his associates believe they have successfully stymied the course of Nigerian jurisprudence. However; it seems the champagne will have to remain on ice, if only for a little while yet. For if the Supreme Court considers the implications of the weighty questions put to it by the Benue ACN legal team last Monday, Government House Makurdi may no longer continue to be party Benue State’s party joint.
It will be recalled that on November 14, 2011, the Supreme Court ordered the retrial of Professor Ugbah’s election petition in Benue with the following admonition by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Dahiru Musdapher, “Matters should be decided on their merits and not technicalities.” (http://saharareporters.com/news-page/supreme-court-orders-re-trial-benue-akwa-ibom-nation-lagos) Despite this order, on February 28, 2012, the Benue State Elections Petition Tribunal in Makurdi threw out the petition of Professor Ugbah and the ACN on the technical grounds that the staturoy time for hearing the case, 180 days, had elapsed, and therefore, the Tribunal lacked the jurisdiction to preside over the case. Last Monday, June 8, 2012, Ugbah went back to the Supreme Court seeking the court to either reinforce its order to the Tribunal to hear his petition, or assume jurisdiction itself and render a judgement. On the heels of the Supreme Court’s reveral of its order that election petitons ought to heard on their merits and not technicalities (the first reversal coming in May 8th, 2012 in its dismissal of Alhaji Goni’s challenge to Borno State Governor Kashim Shetimma’s election, and then another reversal on June 1st, 2012 with the dismissal of James Akpan Udoedehen’s challenge of Akwa Ibom State Governor Akpabio’s election), the Supreme Court appeared poised to equally dismiss Ugbah’s petition on the same grounds as prefaced by Justice Mary Odili who in ruling on Udoedehen’s dismissial held that “Section 285[6] of the Constitution categorically states that a petition shall be served, heard and determined within 180 days starting from when the petition was filed, and that no court has the power to extend the 180 days to accommodate any petition. “ However, when the full court sat on Monday May, 31st 2012, counsel to Professor Ugbah, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN), led Femi Falana to argue to the court that Ugbah’s electoral petition touched upon the fundamental principle of constiutional order – the right to appeal – and that the Supreme Court would be promoting anarchy if it denied Ugbah his fundamental right. Akeredolu said, “The consititution gives us the right to appeal. You cannot use preliminary objection to deny a constitutional right. This appeal is based on extant decision of the court which has not been set aside. The constitutional right to fair hearing has overriding power on other provisions. If the court ordered that a matter be heard denovo, there cannot be a limitation to statute. A constitutional right of appeal cannot be without remedy.” Akeredolu’s submission questions the very essense of constitutional democracy. For if those who are aggreived canno even get their day in court then what is the point of having a constitution? In the particular case of Benue, Governor Suswam has employed every foul and fair tactic to avoiding answering the evidence of electoral fraud that Ugbah and the ACN legal team have gathered in evidence. Governor Suswam has used delay tactics to prevent evidence to be heard in open court, he has attempted to bribe judges on the Tribunal (Justice Kakaan was implicated as the go between), and he has harassing and intimidated judges as the first Tribunal Chair, Justice Daisy Okocha fled Benue after her car was damaged and a note threatening her life was left. The subsequent Tribunal Chair, Munir Ladan, had to flee to Abuja to request additional security to protect the Tribunal judges. Further flexing his political muscle to predetermine a favorable judicial ruling, Governor Suswam has leveraged his reputed closness to President Goodluck Jonathan, as anyone within earshot of the governor gets an earful of the governor touting this influence with Jonathan as his ace to ensure that the Supreme Court will rule in his favour. Given what Nigeria has become today, he just may be right. But he will not be vindicated. Neither will the justices of the Supreme Court. Neither will Nigeria’s democracy. As the world watches, the Supreme Court will tell us whether or not elections matter in Nigeria’s fourth attempt at democracy.googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });
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