That Rivers May Know Peace (11) … On Bickering Over Supreme Court Ruling

Wike and Amaechi

This is the concluding part of this work first published last week Monday
In My Agony last week Monday, I laid out the basis for the strong skepticism that attended the rulings of both the Rivers State Governorship elections petition Tribunal and the Appeal Court, and why it was inevitable that both decisions could not stand the test of time.
That was grounded in the fact that the petition of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate, Dr Dakuku Peterside against Governor Nyesom Wike overlooked similar Supreme Court ‘s judgement on same issues and relied heavily on the smartcard readers’ use over the indispensability of the voters  register. It was a judicial rebellion of sorts, for lower courts to jettison decisions of the apex court and expect same to contradict  itself in favour of such lower courts.
For Instance, while the petition tarried before the lower courts, decisions had long been taken by the Supreme Court on the Lagos State Governorship appeal in favour of the incumbent governor. That ruling stated unambiguously that the card reader cannot be a substitute to the voters register, meaning, any over-reliance on the former, without tying it to the latter would amount to a fruitless legal voyage.
Another established legal condition for disputing election results, is the demand on the petitioner to disprove results polling booth by polling booth, unit by unit and ward by ward, etc. It must not be selective but comprehensive and all-inclusive. So, when lower courts’ decision on issues contrary to law, there are plausible indications that such rulings would fail before the apex court. How is such optimism misplaced or be misconstrued into having fore-knowledge of  impending ruling?.
These are expectations that do not require exclusive knowledge of legal luminaries to look forward to. If therefore, the Supreme Court, after a thorough appraisal of the issues of law as against inadvertent over-reliance on facts, determines the petition before it in favour of Governor Nyesom Wike, why should Rivers State lose sleep? For how long would the strange politics of desperation, vendetta, violence, campaigns of calumny and meaningless name-calling be allowed to slow down the economy of the state and threaten the stability of the new administration?
Look at the huge resources and human capital the National Assembly and State House of Assembly re-run elections will draw out of the people and state. Do those now engaging in street-litigation, even after the Supreme Court decision stop to wonder that such re-run would have been avoided if the petitions had gone beyond Appeal Court to the Apex Court?
Is it not safe to say that the Senators, House of Representatives members and those of the state House of Assembly whose elections were annulled for same reasons as  the governors were indeed short-charged, given what we now know? If their cases had appeared before the apex court, would there have been any re-run?
Politics, as a key ingredient of democratic culture should be played according to the rules. It requires people to give meaning to favourable electoral outcome, and nothing more paramount. Infact, history has shown that it is very difficult for a political party to influence electoral outcome through unconventional methods or rigging, in a place where it lacks majority support. The outcome of the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections are ready examples. So also was the governorship election in Bayelsa State.
So why can’t political litigants stop being bad losers and give peace a chance?
No day passes without alarms of planned murder, murder and imminent violence.
Infact, some opposition politicians have so demonised the state that only very few foreign investors would be courageous enough to arrive the state first, before finding the truth. Should their unfavourable political experience be reason enough to destroy or stagnate the state’s economy?
Shortly after the general elections which were predominantly won by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the opposition APC championed a campaign that the state was not secure enough to accommodate the governorship elections petitions tribunal and for which the court was moved to Abuja. But after every seeming victory, be it success of a motion or even rejection of the opponents’ motion, the litigants rushed to the unsafe state for thanksgiving, without molestation.
Another is the dangerous penchant of blaming unresolved murders on rival political parties without the needed valid evidence necessary for the law enforcement agencies to effect prosecution. For instance, the social media is awash with photographs of dead bodies, allegedly killed by political opponents. Why can’t the accusers volunteer the identity of the killers to the security agencies to ensure that the culprits are brought to book? What kind of Rivers image are they projecting to the outside world?
Is Rivers the only state where election result was upheld by the Apex Court? Akwa Ibom, Delta, Cross River, Abia, Lagos, Ogun and Nasarawa are some of the states where the Supreme Court adjudicated on petitions emanating from lower courts and in most cases upheld the election of the principals.
In the case of Rivers, the panel of Seven Supreme Court Justices, led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mahamud Muhammed, stated clearly, that the card reader, which the APC relied substantially on, was only a technological unnovation that was introduced to enhance the accreditation of voters for an election, with a view to identifying the actual owner of the voters’ card.
In a lead judgement delivered by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, the Apex Court maintained that Wike who contested the April 11, 2015 state governorship election on the platform of the PDP was denied fair-hearing by the lower courts.
According to the learned Justice Kekere-Ekun, “I am of the view and I do hold that the tribunal and lower court were unduly swayed by the INEC directives on use of the card reader. As held by this court, the INEC directives and manual cannot be elevated above the provisions of the Electoral Act so as to eliminate manual accreditation of voters. This will remain so until INEC take steps to have the necessary amendments made to bring the usage of the card reader within the ambit of the Substantive Electoral Act. It was for this reason that I resolved these two issues in favour of the appellant” Justice Kekere-Ekun added.
Citing sections 138(b)2 and 153 of the Electoral Act, the Supreme Court noted whereas INEC is conferred with powers to issue regulations, guidelines and manual for smooth conduct of an election, it said, ‘ so long an act or omission regarding such regulation or guideline is not contrary to the provisions of the Act itself, it shall not on itself be a ground for questioning the outcome of elections.
‘It follows therefore, that the inclusion of non-compliance with the manual for election officials, as well as INEC’s general approved guidelines, in the circumstances of this case is improper. This issue is also resolved in the appellant’s favour.
How are these points ambiguous as to attract such public vilification of the Justices by bad losers? Have they forgotten so soon that the same Supreme Court truncated Governor Nyesom Wike’s attempt to challenge the relocation of the Rivers State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal to Abuja? That the same Supreme Court ruled in their favour that the Appeal Court has powers to relocate such court given the circumstances?
In that instance, they sang the praise of the Supreme Court and fashioned pet names: “Hope of the Nation”, Defender of the Defenceless’, Beacon of Democracy and ‘Last hope of the common man’.
But now that the pendulum has swung in their disfavour, they have chosen to litigate on the streets with prominent members of the bar being conscripted into the shameful charade.
Beyond their façade, can one truly discern what political sages pontificated on ages ago?. That man is moved to action, not so much for his intellect of reason, but for his desire and appetites. Did that also explain Prof Sagay’s recent goofs of amnatra over the Apex Court’s decision?
Enough is enough. Politicians must know when and what to play politics with. They must realise that no man’s ambition is worth anyone’s blood as  averred by former President Goodluck Jonathan, and showed  he meant what he had said.
My Agony is that with what we now know, if the petitions on the National and State Assembly elections had gone beyond the Appeal Court, the obvious miscarriage of justice, resulting in re-run, would have been avoided.
This is the fact.
Soye Wilson Jamabo