Text of a Press Conference
on Monday, January 11, 2021 by Chairmen of 22 Local Government Councils in
Rivers State and Appellants at the Court of Appeal challenging the
nullification of their election by the Federal High Court on July 9, 2015 and
removal from office by Governor Nyesom Wike.
Gentlemen of the Press,
This
Press Conference is called to draw the attention of the Government and good
people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, patriotic sons and daughters of
Rivers State in particular, the Nigeria Police and other security agencies to
the grave impunity and suppression of our rights as free citizens of Rivers
State by the Governor, his Peoples Democratic Party and the Rivers State
Independent Electoral Commission. This disrespect for the rule of law and
subversion of our rights as set down in the facts below has gone on for far too
long and if left unchecked, is capable of provoking responses that could
occasion a breakdown of law and order with very dire consequences for public
peace in Rivers State. The media is invited to witness the gross violation of
our rights under the Constitution of this great nation by a Government and
political party that are too intoxicated with transient power to understand
that our Constitution provides for multiparty democracy and the choice to
belong to the All Progressives Congress or any other political party does not
break any law to warrant detrimental consequences.
Conscious
of your function as the Fourth Estate of the Realm under the same Constitution,
it is our fervent prayer and hope that you will henceforth interrogate these
issues and give it the attention and widest publicity possible in a manner that
holds Governor Nyesom Wike, his appointees and agencies of the Rivers State
Government accountable. We believe that as society’s watchdog, your roles and
vigilance will avert the unrelenting predilection to subjugate our rights or
those of other Rivers people in furtherance of some narrow, selfish and
discriminatory political agenda. This is your obligation and sole duty under
Section 22 of the Constitution and we urge you to discharge same fully to
foster peace built on justice and the respect for the rights of all citizens in
the State, regardless of their political affiliations.
THE CRUX OF THE MATTER
1.
Gentlemen of the Press, before you this day are Chairmen and Councillors of 22
Local Government Councils in Rivers State who were duly elected by Rivers
people in an election conducted in 302 Wards by the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) on May 23,
2015 in exercise of her powers under the Constitution of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria 1999 (as Amended) and in accordance and full compliance with the
provisions of the Rivers State Local
Government Law, No. 2 of 2012. However, election did not hold in
Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni LGA at the time in question since the tenure of the Council
under the leadership of Hon. Austin Ahiamadu was yet to elapse.
2.
Contrary to the deliberate falsehoods, innuendo and propaganda dished out by
the PDP and idle political opponents to delegitimize our election and mislead
the unwary, there was no legal encumbrance to the holding of same. One of such
bare-faced lies is that which claims that the Government of Rivers State under
The Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi caused an amendment of the Law to shorten
the number of days in the NOTICE OF POLL
published by the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission under Prof.
Augustine Ahiauzu to conduct an election to enable the outgoing Governor
rail-road us into office. Nothing can be further from the truth! There was no
abridgment of time in the *NOTICE OF POLL* for the May 23, 2015 local
Government Elections since the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission
Law upon which our election held in 2015 was never amended; the last amended
being in 2012 and same was used in the conduct of the 2012 Council polls in ONELGA.
Let us place it on record that the only amendment to the electoral laws of
Rivers State thereafter was in 2018 via an executive Bill from Emmanuel Chinwewo Aguma, the Honourable
Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice appointed by Nyesom Wike.
3.
Pursuant to our successful election as aforementioned, we were inaugurated on
Monday, May 25, 2015 as Executive Chairmen of our respective Councils by the
Governor of Rivers State, at the time The Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi,
CON, and in turn administered the official Oaths on our respective Vice
Chairmen. We had also inaugurated the Councils in accordance with the law and
began the full businesses of Council before a judgment of the Federal High
Court sitting in Port Harcourt on July 9, 2015 at the instance of the suit Peoples Democratic Party v. Independent
National Electoral Commission and 4 Ors (FHC/PH/CS/84/2015) nullified the
election that brought us to office.
4.
We respectfully invite you to note that the claim by the Rivers PDP that our
election was nullified because RSIEC conducted same on May 23, 2015 in
contravention of an Order of the Federal High Court is another strand in a huge
tissue of lies. Same is deliberate falsehood mischievously engineered to cast
shadows on the legality of our election.
We insist that NO ORDER was
made by Justice Akanbi to stop the Local Government elections of May 23, 2015
when he adjourned hearing of the matter sine
die on April 29, 2015 upon learned Counsel to RSIEC, B. E. I. Nwafor (SAN),
informing the court that an appeal had been lodged at the Court of Appeal to
stop it from hearing the matter. Unless the PDP is misleading herself to think
that the Ex-parte application the court heard on April 22, 2015 but never
granted and directed as follows: “The
Respondents be and are hereby ordered to appear in this Court on Wednesday the
29th of April 2015 to show cause why the order sought (i.e. Prayer 5) shall not
be made or granted” was an Order to stop the elections. The PDP cannot
dispute this indelible fact in the records of the Federal High Court in FHC/PH/CS/84/2015.
5.
The Chancery of the judicial coup against the election of May 23, 2015 and
ambush on justice to justify our unlawful removal from office was the law firm
of Emmanuel Chinwewo Aguma, Esq. (as he then was). Gentlemen of the Press, a
mutiny was hatched by the PDP ab initio to shoot down our election in 2015 and
that party, through her lawyer, spared nothing, including blatant falsehoods,
to achieve her selfish goals. For the avoidance of doubt, the PDP targeted the
election of May 23, 2015, which she decided to boycott, essentially on this
prayer that was hinged on the lie about breach of the days of Notice of Poll from an amendment to the
RSIEC Law:
"AN
ORDER restraining the 1st Defendant, its servants, privies or agents from
releasing to the 2nd and 3rd Defendants that part of the National Register of
Voters containing a register of voters in Rivers State, namely the official
register of voters certified by the 1st Defendant, for use by the 2nd and 3rd
Defendants to unlawfully conduct Local Government Elections in Rivers State
scheduled to hold on or before May 29, 2015 until the 2nd and 3rd Defendants
publish the requisite Notice of election to the Plaintiff that is in conformity
with section 30 of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended."
6.
The point has been made that no such amendment was contemplated to the
Electoral laws of the State let alone made in furtherance of the processes
leading to that election. No Order from that Prayer was also made restraining
INEC howsoever on the question of release of the Voters’ Register. Certain
grand falsehoods by the PDP that are now taken for granted were cooked and
served from the chancery of the plot to disallow the 2015 Council polls. These
must be dealt with to eliminate the perception of Appellants as contemnors who
deserve no justice. The PDP have hung on her impunity and these lies to undo us
for so long in this case because the facts are swept under the carpet and kept
away from media scrutiny.
7.
The subsequent filing of a Notice of Withdrawal of the appeal by RSIEC for the
Stay of Proceedings at the Federal High Court in FHC/PH/CS/84/2015 after Wike took over was simply a case of
Emmanuel Chinwewo Aguma continuing the execution of his brief as private
Counsel to the PDP from the desk of the Attorney-General. Recall that the
Federal High Court adjourned sine die
to wait for the Court of Appeal to resume sitting in October 2015 on the
application filed by Counsel to RSIEC. The surreptitious execution of change of
Counsel to RSIEC from the person of B. E. I. Nwafor (SAN) days after his
appointment was not the law in operation per
se. A lawyer whose brief has been enlarged by the powers of the Office of
the Attorney-General of Rivers State was working for his clients. No wonder
once he was appointed, the law offices of E. C. Aguma, Esq., was on the 4th of
June, 2015 served a Notice of Withdrawal of the Appeal by RSIEC (2nd Defendant
in FHC/PH/CS/84/2015) endorsed by the Solicitor-General and Permanent
Secretary, Ministry of Justice. Armed with the Notice of Withdrawal of the
Appeal lodged by the 2nd and 3rd Defendants, the political shenanigans to
truncate the cause of justice on this appeal had been effectively commissioned
in the hands of the lawyer to the PDP. Come the 5th of June, 2015, Emmanuel
Chinwewo Aguma's law firm wrote to the presiding Judge of the Federal High
Court to inform him of the withdrawal of the appeal. This, in effect, cleared
the coast for relisting the matter and rendered the return date of October 12,
2015 at the Court of Appeal merely academic.
8.
Gentlemen of the Press, coming from the position of Counsel to the PDP who
filed the Originating Summons in FHC/PH/CS/84/2015,
the political appointee of the Governor in the Office of Chief Law Officer of
the State was acting SWIFTLY in the interest of the PDP. Aguma was the same
Honourable Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice who before his
unfortunate transition initiated and maintained the judicial siege on our appeal.
However, this is a partisan Agenda and the Respondents have returned to their
well-choreographed games on this appeal, even in his absence.
9.
Regardless of the facts in the preceding paragraphs and the judgment by Justice
Akanbi on July 9, 2015 after refusing to hear our application for joinder
before him contrary to standard practice in our jurisdiction, we vacated the
Councils without incident as responsible and law-abiding Rivers men and women.
No Journalist reported any resistance howsoever to the taking over of our
offices by Caretaker Chairmen appointed and sworn to office same July 9, 2015
by Governor Wike. You will recall that even officers and men of the Rivers
State Command of the Nigeria Police who took positions at the Councils to prevent
the resumption of the Chairmen of those unconstitutional Caretaker Committees
withdrew to allow them access to the councils on July 10, 2015. Note moreover
that even though at the time of our removal, our great party (the APC) was in
charge of the reins of power at the level of the Federal Government, we chose
the path of constitutionalism as honourable men and women in reaction to our
unlawful removal. We never resorted to self-help in seeking redress to the
anomalies orchestrated by Wike and his political party.
10.
We took the civilized path in the circumstance by filing an application in Hon. Augustine P. Ngo & 22 Ors v.
Peoples Democratic Party & 4 Ors (CA/PH/338/2016) seeking leave to
appeal the judgment of the Federal High Court. Once the Court of Appeal granted
our prayers on the 20th of June 2016, the Governor of Rivers State and his PDP
caused RSIEC under Justice Chukuneye Uriri to file interlocutory appeals at the
Supreme Court challenging the decision and for stay proceedings on the
substantive appeal. We had, and still have, no objection to the exercise of
their rights to ventilate whatever disagreements or grievances they had with
the ruling. Our grouse stems from subsequent facts which have betrayed their
real intention. The PDP Governor of Rivers State and his agents see the
Councils as a bounty and are determined to frustrate the hearing and
determination of our appeal as required by law and the Constitution.
11.
We may not delve into the merits or otherwise of our appeal save to state salient
facts that have occurred across time during the proceedings since same is still
pending before the respected learned Justices of the Court of Appeal and was
adjourned to February 1st 2021 on the date of the last court sitting on the
19th of October, 2020. However, because the PDP and her agents who plotted our
ouster are desperate to proceed with their impunity, subjugate our rights,
politicize issues and undermine justice on this appeal, we are under a moral
and civic obligation to lay bare the facts constituting hindrances to the
determination of this appeal. Nothing makes that duty more sacred and expedient
than the decision of the PDP-led Government of Rivers State to hold another
Council election this year in utter contempt of and clear disregard for the
Judiciary. Ironically, the new RSIEC Board preparing to conduct another Local
Government election is chaired by Justice George Omereji who is sufficiently
aware of this matter long before taking the baton from his brother and fellow
retired Justice of the High Court of Rivers State.
12.
Gentlemen of the Press, we invite you to note that the interlocutory
applications made at the Supreme Court by RSIEC and the PDP in Rivers State Independent Electoral
Commission & Anor v. Hon. Augustine P. Ngo & 22 Ors (SC.536/2016) and
Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission v. Hon. Augustine P. Ngo
(SC.910/2017) respectively to challenge the ruling of the Court of Appeal
on June 20, 2016 and to Stay proceedings were a mere ruse concocted to buy time
and waste judicial resources. The journey to the Supreme Court was designed to
hold down the Court of Appeal to suffocate justice and no more. Note
particularly, that whereas as Respondents before the Supreme Court we were
diligent at all material times with our defences, the Appellants/Applicants
simply ran down the clock doing no positive thing. The records of the apex
court between February 1, 2017; April 5, 2017; May 11, 2017; December 18, 2018
and January 23, 2019 bear eloquent testimony to the slothfulness of the RSIEC
and PDP on their own appeal.
13.
However, when it became convenient for the PDP to exercise her well documented
impunity, she ignored the Judiciary and directed her ward (RSIEC) to conduct
the 2018 Council polls which action tampered gravely with the Res after
successfully freezing the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal in over two years
with a rash of frivolous Motions. Believing that the mission to seal our fate
was accomplished, both Appellants/Applicants withdrew their Motions on December
18, 2018 and January 23, 2019 respectively and same were struck out. It should
be noted that in dismissing the interlocutory appeals, the Supreme Court
awarded cost of One Million Naira (N1,000,000) in favour of each set of
Respondents which the Appellants have failed to pay to this day. The three sets
of Respondents namely, the 1st to 23rd, 25th and 26th Respondents, are still
waiting for the PDP to obey that simple Order.
14.
Sadly, the same Respondents in CA/PH/338/2016
who are calling for another Council election in April in continuation of their
grave contempt of the Judiciary (in this case, the Justices of the Court of
Appeal) had resumed flexing their political muscles to further stall the
determination of our appeal since Chief S. T. Hon (SAN), Counsel to the
Appellants, wrote on the 15th of July 2019 to the presiding Justice of the
Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt Division for the relisting of this appeal, Fire
outbreaks that affect the Court of Appeal building renovated by Wike in 2017
after our appeal was frozen only on and a few hours to our appeal has become
the new fad to truncate proceedings. If that is not the case, senior Counsel to
the PDP (1st Respondent) would file Motions or amended briefs and add the DSS,
a party that has been expunged from the records of the Honourable Court since
on the 6th of November 2017. Meanwhile, Counsel to the Appellants has since the
3rd of December 2019 moved the Motion to regularize our Reply Briefs to the
1st, 3rd and 4th Respondents Brief of Arguments. Again, five other dates have
come and gone on the 22nd of January; 24th February; 24th June; 13th July and
October 2020 respectively with the Respondents playing their games and making
no recognizable judicial effort towards concluding the appeal. This is happening
to the consternation of the Appellants in an era cases involving the APC in
Rivers State and arising from intra-party disputes receive and continue to
receive jet speed judicial attention and resolution. We have been at this same
spot while dozens of cases including but not limited to Ibrahim Umah and 22 Ors v. All Progressives Congress (BHC/78/2018), Rt.
Hon. Igo Aguma v. All Progressives Congress (PHC/4355/2019), Hon. Golden Ngozi
Chioma v. Senator (Chief) Andrew Uchendu & Ors (PHC/362/2020) have been
determined.
15.
Whereas Counsel to the Appellants had written to the Registrar of the Supreme
Court on the 18th of July, 2019 to apply transmission of the Court of Appeal
file back to Port Harcourt to re-commence hearing on the appeal, the
politically jaundiced Respondents have continued to throw spanners in the
wheels of justice. The PDP and RSIEC work in cahoots to subvert the rule of law
and legal due process on this appeal with all impunity and recklessness.
16.
Gentlemen of the Press, in addition to the extremely provocative plot to deny
us the fruits of our electoral and judicial labour by those pretending to be
entitled to conduct or contest Local Government elections in Rivers State after
bringing ours down, the same theatrics deployed to abort the hearing of our
appeal was unleashed for very sinister reasons. For the avoidance of doubt, the
stalling of this appeal since 2016 is orchestrated by Governor Wike and his
agents to obstruct justice and forever shield the fact that we were removed
from office as Council Chairmen only because we belong to a different political
party. A Governor and political party whose idea of politics is strange and
anachronistic in the main remain a threat to democracy and the rule of law.
17.
Out of the abundance of caution, we call on the new political leadership of
RSIEC under Justice Omereji to note that they would be held accountable for
whatever decisions they have taken or may take in furtherance of holding
another Council election before this appeal is disposed of. As a jurist
himself, Omereji ought to know and not be reminded that such is deleterious
insofar as the decision of the Supreme Court in Governor of Lagos State v.
Ojukwu (1986) 1 NWLR (Pt. 18) 621 stands. The Supreme Court was emphatic in
that decision and particularly at page 636 thus:
"In
the area where the rule of law operates, the rule of self help by force is
abandoned. Nigeria being one of the countries in the world even in the third
world which proclaim loudly to follow the rule of law, there is no room for the
rule of self help by force to operate. Once a dispute has arisen between a
person and the government or authority and the dispute has been brought before
the Court, thereby invoking the judicial powers of the State, it is the duty of
the government to allow the law to take its course or allow the legal and
judicial process to run its full course... The court expect the utmost respect
of the law from the government which rules by the law."
18.
Ironically, the PDP that relied on this same authority in her Petition dated
June 26, 2015 to the Chairman of the National Judicial Council in reaction to
our Petition where we expressed discomfort with the handling of our interest in
FHC/PH/CS/84/2015 is the same party led on our appeal by very senior lawyers
like Donald Denwigwe (SAN), the Honourable Attorney-General of Rivers State
through Echezona Etiaba (SAN), that is proceeding in a manner suggesting that
the Court of Appeal is too inconsequential to warrant waiting for the
determination of this appeal.
19.
On the phalanx of members of the APC in Rivers State making a declaration of
intention to contest for positions at the 2021 Council polls. As you are
sufficiently aware, the leadership of our great party (Rivers APC) under the
Barr. Isaac Abbot Ogbobula Caretaker Committee has proclaimed the
non-participation of the party in the scheduled Council elections. That
declaration was made in good faith and in the interest of the party. We stand
by it, noting that no sane man can dwell in approbation and reprobation at the
same time. Those working in collaboration with the PDP and are exuding Dutch
courage thinking they can fly the APC flag at the proposed election whilst the
appeal in CA/PH/338/2016 is yet to be determined are not on the same page with
the party. Those who intend to do so now but have not given reasons for not
running for Council offices in 2018 are on a frolic of their own and never
acting in the interest of our party. Consequently, we leave them in the hands
of the party leadership to invoke appropriate disciplinary sanctions for this
clear anti-party behaviour.
20.
Finally, we have laboured very hard to continue on the path of patience with
the Judiciary as law-abiding citizens of the Republic. Our faith in the
Judiciary (the Courts) as the last hope of the common man remains unshakable
because we are pursuing a good cause. We have restrained ourselves, the Vice
Chairmen and Councillors behind us and millions of Rivers people who expressed
faith through the ballot in our capacity to serve them. We have maintained
calmness and encouraged our supporters to also keep faith in the face of grave
violations of our rights by fellow citizens since 2015. However, since the
mighty and powerful in the Government of Rivers State and her agencies insist
on undermining the rule of law, let them be reminded in the words of Steven Douglas in a debate with Abraham Lincoln: “The civilized world has
always held that when a race of men have shown themselves to be so degraded by
Ignorance, superstitions, cruelty and by Barbarism as to be utterly incapable
of governing themselves, they must in the nature of things be governed by
others by such laws as are deemed to be applicable to their conditions.” As
Nigerians entitled to rights and protection of same by the institutions of our
country, we advise those who are too degraded by their ignorance to know that
the power they hold a superstitious belief would remain forever in their hands
is transient, to thread with caution. The resort to self-help to suppress our
rights such as we have seen on account of political differences is Barbarism
and proof that those in authority are incapable of governing us. Lett the
nation be put on notice that we would take no responsibility for any backlash
that may arise from the continued resort to impunity by the 1st, 3rd and 4th
Respondents in particular as touching on the Res of our pending appeal. Before
it is too late, let the rule of law prevail over the rule of the thumb and
self-help.
May
God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Gentlemen
of the Press, we thank you for your patience.
