‘Why We Declared Amaechi Governor’

Two years after Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State was declared the validly elected governor of the state, Supreme Court Justice, George Oguntade, Friday at a lecture gave reasons for the decision of the apex court.

The court, he said, was motivated by the desire to do substantial justice in the case of the governor versus the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Amaechi, he stated, was wrongfully excluded from the erection as he was the validly nominated candidate of the party in accordance with Section 34(2) of the Electoral Act.

He said the same principle guided the court also in the case of Senator Ifeanyi Araraume and the PDP who was expelled by the party in an apparent attempt to render the judgment of the apex court nugatory.

Oguntade, who voiced his frustration at the lawlessness exhibited by the ruling party in its bid to frustrate the court judgment, said if he had his way, the party would have been committed for contempt.

“After Araraurme won the case in the Supreme Court, PDP then said, well you have won the case but we have expelled you from the party. If I had my way, I do not know why PDP should not be committed for contempt.”

Oguntade, who wrote the dissenting judgment in the case of Gen. Mohammed Buhari, and the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), said he decided to deliver the lecture entitled: “Dissenting Judgments and Judicial Making”, because of the role dissenting judgments play in the development of the law.

“It is my firm view that in a nascent democracy as Nigeria’s, where our public law can he regarded very much as still in its infancy, judges must be encouraged to exercise independence of mind in the interpretation and application of law so as to protect the rights of the people.”

The Justice also went down memory lane to comment on the case of the former vice president, Aliku Abubakar and INEC when he was excluded from contesting the 2007 on the strength of a committee set up by former President Olusesun Obasanjo.

The former vice president, Oguntade said, was treated unfairly as he was denied the provisions of Section 34 (2) of the Electoral Act which provides for 90 days of campaigning before election as he (Atiku Abubakar) only had four days to campaign.

For law and order to prevail in the nation’s democracy, Ohasanjo, he emphasis, needed to be told in categorical terms that he had no power to constitute himself as the accuser, the prosecutor and the judge.

The court, he said, was motivated by the conviction that nobody should be denied the right to contest an election unless convicted by a court of competent jurisdiction.

The judge who will be retiring from the Supreme Court early next year on the attainment of the statutory age of 70 years, spoke at the inaugural Justice Adolphus Godwin KaribiWhyte Convocation lecture of the Nigerian Institute of Advance Legal Studies (NIALS), University of Lagos.

Distinguised guests at the lecture included the Justice Minister, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa (SAN); retired Supreme Court Justice; Adolphus Karibi-Whyte, Director-General of the Institute, Prof. Epiphany Azinge (SAN) and Chief George Uwueche (SAN).