Letter to Chief Justice of Nigeria

REF: CLO/ANSB/VOL 01/10/09/CJN/ ABJ/NIG/


14 Orlu Street Fegge

Box 14883 Onitsha

Anambra State

09-10-09



His Lordship Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi,

The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN),

The CJN Chambers,

Supreme Court Complex,

The three Arms Zone,

Abuja FCT.



Your Lordship



FUNDAMENTAL DISENFRANCHISEMENT OF ANAMBRA PEOPLE IN THE UPCOMING GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION AND FLAGRANT DISOBEDIENCE TO COURT ORDERS BY INEC.

DEMOCRACY AND RULE OF LAW IS

ON TRIAL IN NIGERIA.



The Civil Liberties Organization Nigeria, Anambra State Branch wish to write your lordship over continuing attempts by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) under Prof Maurice Iwu to ridicule Nigeria among the comity of nations with regard to the upcoming gubernatorial elections in Anambra state.



Presently, Anambra through the actions and inactions of INEC is about to be turned to another “Cambodia era of 1974/75” where institutions of governance collapsed and catastrophic destruction of human and material resources held sway.

Your lordship, as you may be aware, the staggered election for the gubernatorial seat in Anambra state has been fixed for Feb 6 2010 by INEC. As the date is fast approaching, ominous signs on ground portend great danger for our nascent democracy.



Ordinarily, the 2010 election presents a golden opportunity for our national rebirth, and a confirmation of Mr. President’s determination to reform our electoral system, which he acknowledged that the process of his own emergence into office was flawed. Unfortunately, we are about to get it wrong once more.



Anambra state has a chequered political history, the state in years past especially between 2006 to 2006 as well as the 2007 (s) election was ravaged with all manner of vices vis-à-vis electoral malfeasance, brigandage, allegiance to deadly shrines, godfather/godson infighting among others.

Following the electoral victory secured by Governor Peter Obi at the Appeal Court in Enugu 15/3/06 and tenure interpretation matter at the Supreme Court 14/06/07, tenacity of purpose, rule of law and belief on the much held maxim that judiciary is the last hope of the common man prevailed. We all rejoiced that after everything, there is still hope for Nigeria.



SITUATION REPORT IN ANAMBRA.

Presently, according to INEC time table, continuous voter’s registration / revalidation ended on Monday 26th September 2009. Anambra citizens were kept in the dark when the exercise commenced but INEC declared that the commission has already registered 1.8 million voters. The Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Mr. Rowland Uwah later said that 2 million voters were finally registered. According to the 2006 census figure, Anambra has a total population of 4,182,032, unofficial sources say the actual population is above 5 million (no thanks to the unreliability of Nigeria’s statistical data and the disturbances of some MASSOB insurgents who disrupted the census exercise in some parts of the state in 2006)



On September 13,2009, INEC in a special publication in Sunday Vanguard page 26 quoted 1,751 142 as the actual number of registered voters in the state without recourse to the so called (then) ongoing voters registration and the figure earlier quoted by the Resident Electoral Commissioner.



From our investigations, the conflicting figures purportedly bandied about by INEC is a product of “robotic” and “flying” voters register used in the 2007 illegal election that produced a winner in the person of “Dr” Emmanuel Andy Uba.



We remember the 2007 (s) election where despite a pending suit filed by Mr. Peter Obi at the supreme court for tenure interpretation with regard to section 180(2 ) of the 1999 constitution, INEC went ahead and conducted an election where 80% of the citizens of the state couldn’t vote but at the end, a block allocation of 1,0006 million votes was allocated to an already scripted winner. The situation report now is that over 2 million Anambrarians has been disenfranchised again in the up coming election.



There are 21 local government areas, 326 wards and 4,653 polling units in the state. For the period the voters’ registration exercise lasted, our field investigators visited all the local councils and discovered that not up to 30% of the areas were covered in the exercise. Within Onitsha North and South Council areas, the church leaders took the task upon themselves to ensure that their congregations were not disenfranchised but all to no avail.



The Catholic laity council and the Justice Development and Peace Commission of the Onitsha Archdiocese spent their personal resources to educate and sensitise the public as well as mobilize INEC to do their job. At SS John & Paul Catholic Parish Iba Pope Awada, our informed sources say that over N200,000 was spent to bring the voters registration machine to the church so that the parishioners could register, over 1,100 citizens booked for registration but at the end, after 2 days, about 150 eventually registered.



At St. Faith Anglican Church Fegge Onitsha, very close to the State Headquarters of the CLO, out of over 4,000 eligible voters billed to register, 200 eventually registered. The secretary of CLO comrade Justus Ijeoma, many times he went to the center notwithstanding, could not register.



At Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka and various government parastatals including the civil servants, the story remained the same as the 24th September holiday granted by the state government to workers to enable them register was totally wasted. On enquiry, the workers never saw any sign of INEC staff or designated registration centers for the exercise.



Flagrant Disobedience to Court Orders

Constitutional democracy in Nigeria grants the courts the powers and jurisdiction to determine issues between persons, institutions and government as enshrined in part ii section 6 and sections 251 and 257 of the 1999 constitution. Regrettably, the Goerge Orwell’s satirical classic- Animal Farm where Napoleon and Snowball engaged each other in a game of wits that eventually led to the mysterious change of the constitution of the animal kingdom from seven to one - All animals are equal but some are more equal than others seemed to have been unofficially conscripted into our statute’s books.



Ordinarily, it is not under our purview to delve into political party matters but democracy and good governance as one of the cardinal projects of the CLO is endangered presently in Anambra with the way INEC and Iwu is toying with the image of the judiciary in Nigeria.



It is no longer news that INEC suddenly turned round from relating with Chief Victor Umeh as the National Chairman of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) to recognize Chief Chekwas Okorie as the “authentic” chairman. The sitting governor of Anambra State, desirous of a second tenure which is his constitutional right has already picked nomination form of the party from the Chief Umeh led APGA



On Friday September 25 2009, in contravention of various court decisions the INEC stunned Nigerians and handed over the original copies of forms CF 001 and CF 002B meant for the nomination of candidates for the 2010 Anambra gubernatorial poll to Chekwas Okorie



It is on record that several investigations and court verdicts on the leadership tussle of the party have been victorious on the side of Umeh led APGA. In the judgment of by the federal high court FCT Abuja in suit number FCT/HC/CV/278/05 APGA, 13 ORS vs Chief Victor Umeh, 13 ORS the court had said that “the expulsion of the second plaintiff (Okorie) and his co-travelers by the party was in accordance with the constitution of the party, and is therefore affirmed”



In June 2007, by a memorandum alleged to have been backdated to 22nd December 2006 but actually written on 11th day of June 2007, Prof Iwu directed the political parties monitoring committee of INEC to thenceforth deal with the executive committee of APGA led by Chekwas Okorie. This according to Iwu was “sequel to a recent court order on the APGA crisis”.



The APGA leadership challenged Iwu’s claim and headed to court. Another judgment of the federal high court in suit No FCH/ABJ/CS/38/08 APGA 72 ORS V INEC 7ORS the presiding judge Justice Adamu Bello in his ruling declared that Iwu’s claim was null and void abinitio as it was not supported by any existing court order and thereby set aside the memorandum containing Iwu’s directive.



In May 2009, INEC issued a press statement on APGA leadership describing Okorie as the recognized National chairman of APGA with total disregard to the subsisting judgments earlier mentioned. APGA returned to the courts once more in suit No FHC/CS/452/09 at the federal high court Abuja. Despite the pending suit and order of injunction obtained on September 1 2009, Okorie with the alleged support of Iwu organized a national convention on September 2nd 2009.

On 9th September 2009, the Federal High Court Abuja in presence of counsel to INEC Chief Kanu Agabi SAN made an order restraining INEC from acting on any decision/resolution take by Chekwas Okorie and his co travelers at the purported convention held in defiance of the subsisting court order.

The same illegal faction of APGA prepared for a state congress to choose their governorship aspirant for APGA in the 2010 election.



But the Umeh led APGA obtained a court injunction on Monday the 8th day of October 2009 restraining Chekwas and his group from holding any state congress.



In suit No. A/216/2009 motion No. A/733M/2009 before his lordship Hon. Justice O.M Anyachebelu, the defendants (Okorie & group) were restrained from holding or purporting to hold a state congress of the APGA or any purported meeting of the party on 7th October 2009 or any other date (either before or after) for the purpose of holding a primary election to elect or select a candidate for the office of governor of Anambra state till the determination of the substantive motion or until the court alternate order or the order otherwise lapses.



But as we are wrapping up this letter, news filtered in that Obi has been elected as the flag bearer of the APGA for 2010 election at Awka while Okorie expulsion has been upheld by an Abuja high court again pending the hearing and determination of his appeal.

The same Okorie in defiance of the court orders forwarded the name of Mr George Ozodinobi to INEC until Iwu in recognition of the public outcry that greeted his actions so far suddenly turned around again and snubbed Okorie this time.INEC thereafter issued a statement saying that the commission is recognizing Obi’s nomination by Umeh led APGA owing to the “intervention of Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu and order from above”



By interpretation of the INEC statement, Iwu has remained lawless, since he never took the recent actions in recognition of what the law and the courts said but on the directives of an individual .We are therefore asking is Iwu or INEC above the law? Or do INEC have another set of laws guiding its operations?



We also recall that INEC under Iwu has a long history of snubbing court/ tribunal judgments. After the 2003 elections in Nigeria, Dr Christian Okeke was rigged out in the House of Representatives election for Idemili north/south federal constituency. He pursued his stolen mandate and eventually trounced Dr Jerry Sunny Ugokwe at the appeal court after two years. On 18th November 2005, the federal government of Nigeria through her then Attorney General directed vide a letter to the INEC chairman Prof Iwu to issue Dr Okeke with mandatory certificate of return.

Prof. Iwu declined to carry out the legitimate order citing Dr Ugokwe’s resort to ECOWAS court as reason for its non-compliance. It was continuous ‘fire’ from human right groups championed by the CLO that eventually saw Dr Okeke to the green chambers of the National Assembly few months to the end of the legislative tenure. .



A recent example is in Uyo Akwa Ibom state, Mr. Emmanuel Obot, a candidate in the Uyo federal constituency poll in 2007 have been prevented by INEC from exercising his mandate by refusing to issue him a certificate of return for some ‘mysterious ‘ reasons despite a supreme court ruling on the matter.



Composition of INEC Directors

Section 153(1) (F) and part 1 section 14 (1) of third schedule of the 1999 constitution provides the establishment of INEC and the composition of its directors.
The constitution stipulated the appointment of 13 National commissioners including the chairman who must be persons of unquestionable character and must be from 40 to 50 years.

In INEC structure presently, out of the 13 National commissioners, 9 had completed their five-year tenure and left remaining four.



The four commissioners present (Prof Maurice Iwu, Philip Umeadi Jnr, Victor Chukwuani and Soyebi) cannot form a quorum out of 13 and their composition is a violation of the federal character principle .The first 3 are from the South East while the last 1 comes from the South West.





WHY WE CALL ON YOUR OFFICE (DEMANDS)

According to Comrade Emeka Umeagbalasi, “societies thrive and advance not because of successes recorded over brutal wars they have waged against their antagonists, but purely as a result of wisdoms and legacies inherent in their celebrated judicial advocacies framed by their noble personalities in the robe”



There is clear and present danger in Anambra, the INEC actions under Prof. Iwu is a calculated attempt to return Anambra people and their state to the dark ages of political infamy and we say never again shall a state so well endowed with human and intellectual resources be allowed to assume another pariah status.



Since nobody knows the antics Prof Iwu may come up with next time, we urge you to use your good office to call INEC to order by toeing the path of rectitude and obedience to the rule of law in Anambra.



Transparency and Impartiality should form the basic fulcrum of an electoral umpire instead of acting out an invidious script.



The INEC Establishment Act cap 15 laws of the federation 2004, section 153(1) (4) of the 1999 constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria as well as sections 10,(1),(2),(3),(6) and 11 of the 2006 electoral act, clearly stated certain fundamental duties of the commission with regard to popular and credible elections in Nigeria. The Anambra 2010 election remains a golden opportunity for Nigeria to learn her lesson and for Iwu to join his Ghanaian counter part Dr kwandwo Afari Gyan as an icon of African democracy.



INEC should not rely on section 10(5) of the Electoral Act, which provides that continuous voters registration should stop not later than 120 days before an election to disenfranchise Anambra electorates since the commission didn’t do what they were supposed to do at the right time. It is not yet “uhuru”, we are concerned over the general outcome of the 2010 election in Anambra because the election have been rigged already with the brazen disenfranchisement of the electorates by the commission.



Mike Murdock the American prolific writer and motivational speaker said “you will only be remembered for two things- the problems you solve or the ones you create” Enough of this flagrant abuse of our laws by INEC.

We therefore implore you as the head of the judiciary in Nigeria to rise up and be counted among those that solved the problem of Anambra, a state that has been beleaguered and buffeted so much in the past before an impending conflagration implodes in the state.



Thanking you immensely as you addressed the salient issues raised in this letter.



Yours faithfully for the CLO



Comrade Aloysius Attah

Chairman, Anambra State Branch

+234-80-35090548



CC:

The President Federal Republic of Nigeria

The President of Court of Appeal

The Chief Judge Federal High Court Abuja

The Chief Judge Anambra State

The Senate President

The Speaker House of Representatives

The Inspector General of Police

The Director State Security Service

The INEC Chairman

The Catholic Archbishop Of Onitsha

The Anglican Archbishop of Onitsha.

The Catholic Archbishop of Awka.

The Catholic Bishop of Nnewi

The Anglican Bishop of Nnewi

The Chairman Anambra State Council of Traditional Rulers And

Obi of Onitsha.

President Anambra Association of Town Home

The Chairman Anambra State Markets Association

The President Nigeria Bar Association

The United Nations Secretary General

The UN high commissioner or human rights Geneva Switzerland

The President United Nation Human Rights Council Switzerland.

The President of the United States.

The President of European Union Federation

The Canadian Prime Minister

National Democratic Institute USA

Amnesty International London UK

Human Rights Watch USA

Campaign for Democracy Nigeria

The International Society For Civil Liberties And Rule Of Law

The Committee for the Defense Of Human Rights

United Action For Democracy.