Orji Wins

 

 

By George Opara /Umuahia

Wednesday 11 February, the Appeal Tribunal sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, quashed the nullification of the election of Chief Theodore Orji and Comrade Chris Akomas by the Electoral Tribunal on 25 February 2008 and in effect, returned the duo as Governor and Deputy Governor of Abia State respectively.

 

Chief Onyema Ugochukwu, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2007 governorship election, had petitioned the tribunal against the declaration of Orji and his deputy, candidates of the People’s Progressive Alliance, PPA, as winners by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

The lower tribunal, in its verdict, declared Chief Ugochukwu and his deputy, Chinwe Nwanganga, as winners of the controversial polls on the following grounds: that Orji and Akomas were civil servants but failed to formally resign their appointments as Chief of Staff and commissioner for Lands, Survey and Urban Planning respectively in the government of Orji Uzor Kalu, at least 30 days to the elections. Also, Orji was believed to be an active member of Okija secret society as alleged by the petitioner, Ugochukwu. Though he was considered to have scored majority of the total votes cast but for the foregoing allegations, Orji was declared unfit to be governor. He however appealed the judgment as Ugochukwu, simultaneously, cross-appealed, claiming that he won majority of the valid votes cast.

  But the appeal tribunal, chaired by Justice Saka Ibiyeye, voided the verdict of the lower tribunal on the superior grounds that Orji and his deputy Akomas were not duty bound in law to resign 30 days before their elections because they were not civil servants as defined by Section 318 sub section (1) of the 1979 Constitution. Rather, they were political office holders whose appointments were with the pleasure of the erstwhile governor, Orji Kalu. As for the allegation that Orji was a member of Okija cult, Ibiyeye stated that the allegation lacks proof of evidence capable of making the accused an offender in the eyes of the law. He made it clear that Prosecution Witness 5, Isaac Olisabueze, who corroborated Ugochukwu’s evidence at the lower tribunal that orji is a cultist, was not the maker of the contentious video tape. In its findings, the appeal tribunal uncovered that the video tape was made by one Chief G. C. Duru who even failed to give evidence. The appellate tribunal, however, reasoned that for the merit of credibility in law, only Duru could give evidence and subsequently identify the person he recorded and nobody else. Thus, in its ruling, it rejected the allegation of Okija secret cult membership against Orji and returned Orji and Akomas as governor and deputy governor respectively.The verdict was greeted with jubilation by members of PPA and indigenes of Ibeku ancient kingdom, hometown of Governor Orji, who thronged Government House, Umuahia to congratulate the victor. They subsequently rolled out the drums and spilled into the major streets of Umuahia, capital of the state, singing victory songs. Many political watchers hailed the verdict as healthy, describing it as a vast departure from the resort to legal technicalities to perpetrate illegality as witnessed in the trial tribunal. Governor Orji thanked the judiciary for restoring Abians’ mandate to him and enjoined Chief Ugochukwu, whom he described as his beloved brother, to join hands with him to develop the state. As at press time, Onyema Ugochukwu was not available for comments.

 

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