‘Court of Appeal judgment has left Abia on precipice’ - Okpara

James Okpara who served as the Commissioner for Special
Services, Legal Matters and Due Process, Office of the
Governor of Abia State during the administration of Chief
Theodore Orji is a key player today in Abia grassroots politics.
In this interview with Associate Editor, Sam Egburonu, Okpara,
a lawyer, faults the judgment of the appeal court that sacked
Governor Okezie Ikpeazu and expresses confidence that the
apex court will uphold the overwhelming wishes of the people
of Abia





After the governorship election in Abia State and more
specifically, since after the ruling of the Court of Appeal which
sacked Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of PDP and declared Dr Alex
Otti of APGA as duly elected governor, the political
atmosphere in the state has been charged. As a major player
in Abia State politics in the last eight years, what would you
say is the root cause of the current political tension?

We have to understand what is happening from the historical
perspective of Abia State politics. Abia is divided into two
distinct blocs – the old Bende Division and the old Aba
Division. The old Bende Division has eight local government
areas and the old Aba Division has nine. Abia North is
exclusively old Bende, Abia South is exclusively old Aba; and
then in Abia Central, we have three local government areas
from each of the two divisions. This is the composition of
Abia State. Now, when you go back into history, starting from
the First Republic, Dr M. I. Okpara, Premier of Eastern Region,
was from old Bende Division and when you come to the
period of the military rule, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, Admiral
Ndubuisi Kanu, Major General Ike Nwachukwu, Amadi Ikweche,
Admiral Chijioke Kaja, Navy Captain Osondu were all from old
Bende.

Also, the first civilian governor of Abia State, Dr. Ogbonnaya
Onu, is from old Bende, before the creation of Ebonyi State,
when his community became part of today’s Ebonyi State. The
remaining former civilian governors, Orji Uzor Kalu and
Theodore Ahamefule Orji, were also both from old Bende
though under the current political division, Kalu is from Abia
North while Orji is from Abia Central.

So, this has been the issue. No Ngwa person had governed
the state. All they have produced since the days of the late
Chief Sam Onunaka Mbakwe of old Imo State was deputy
governors. The two deputy governors that Mbakwe had, Dr
Agbalaha and Chief Paul Uzoigwe, were all from Ngwa land. It
is as if the rest of the state is saying that the old Aba cannot
produce the governor of the state. So, Abians came together
and felt that it is fair that the current governor of Abia State
should come from Ngwa land, from old Aba Division,
especially from Abia South, or if you like, from Ukwa Ngwa.

This is based on rotation. The truth is that old Bende may
have been politically more powerful but old Aba has higher
population and the commercial nerve centre of Igbo land, Aba,
is located in old Aba Division. So, no fair minded person
should continue to say they should not be given the chance to
also produce the state governor. That is the perspective that
we have to understand the current tension. During the last
election, practically all the political parties chose their
governorship candidates from this part of the state, Abia
South, as a sign that everyone accepts the need for fairness
based on rotation. So, for the first time they had the chance
and they voted overwhelmingly for their son. So, for someone
to say suddenly that this thing they have been dreaming of
and they got it, it is no longer so. For them, it is
unacceptable. This is part of the tension, especially because
of the means they were or about to be denied this
opportunity. Obingwa, the local government area of origin of
the governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, and the two neighbouring
LGAs, Isialangwa North and Osisioma, which is his natural
base, the votes of these three local government areas, which
favoured him overwhelmingly, were totally cancelled by the
Court of Appeal. This means that Ikpeazu, his wife, family and
relatives did not vote for him. Another issue here is the voting
pattern of Abia State. We all know that to win a governorship
election in Abia State, you must win Obingwa and Bende. Otti
won in Bende and Ikpeazu won overwhelmingly in Obingwa, his
local government of origin, only for the court to cancel it, in
addition to Osisioma and Isialangwa North. Now, when you
look at the voting strength of these three LGAs, it is one-third
of the entire voting strength of Abia State. So, there is
nowhere A or B can win Abia governorship election without
the result of one-third of the state’s voting strength. Take the
federal government for example, if you remove the results of
Katsina, Kaduna and Kano from Buhari, there is nowhere he
would have won 2015 presidential election.



Otti and his party, the PDP, are alleging that the Court of
Appeal denied them fair hearing but some people said the
judges were courageous and their ruling fair?


Have the people making these statements read the judgment?

If you read the judgment of the Court of Appeal, you will
notice that APGA tendered two card reports – one for about
169,000 votes in Obingwa and the other for about 146,000
votes for the same Obingwa local government. In law, it is
elementary that if a party presents two conflicting evidence,
the court will not rely on it. But what the Court of Appeal did
in this matter was to rely fully on this same contradicting
evidence to give judgment. You will note a difference of
23,000 votes. I am saying that instead of throwing away the
evidence for being contradictory and therefore unreliable, the
Court of Appeal said the 23,000 votes were ‘infinitesimal.’ This
is a basic error in law and in fact.


They also relied on the evidence of a lady staff of INEC, who
came to tender one of the two card readers reports. The
issue is that somebody, a particular person was the
subpoena; it is a man, a known person, not an office, but the
woman came to tender it. She was not the maker of the
report, the subpoena and she did not say in her evidence why
the specific person that ought to have made the subpoena did
not come to make it.


On the issue of lack of a fair hearing, when you read the
judgment, the inescapable impression you will get is that the
Court of Appeal is angry with the tribunal for whatever reason.
What happened was that PDP and Dr Okezie Ikpeazu suffered
from transferred aggression in the hands of the Court of
Appeal. This is because the Court of Appeal resolved every
issue on the matter in favour of APGA and Dr Alex Otti. The
Court of Appeal restored all the preliminary objections of Dr
Otti that were struct out by the tribunal and instead of asking
the litigants to address the court on these issues which it
restored, it proceeded to give judgment on these issues
without hearing from PDP and Ikpeazu. This is not fair hearing.


There is also a fact which most people may not know, APGA
did not field any candidate in the two state constituencies in
Obingwa LGA. That means even before the elections, APGA
had conceded defeat in Obingwa. If you don’t have candidate
in the state House of Assembly Election, who will canvass
votes for you, mobilize people for you, who do you expect to
vote for you in the governorship election? In these other local
governments that are involved, the question we should ask
ourselves is who won there in the state assembly elections? It
is on record that PDP won in those elections overwhelmingly.


So, how can you cancel the governorship election and leave
the others? The elections for governorship and State House of
Assembly took place the same day, the same time in the
same polling booths, and under the same conditions.
So, as a lawyer, if you were to preside over the appeal, what
would you have done?


I would have thrown out Dr. Otti’s appeal as lacking any merit,
simple! Look, Dr. Okezie won the election fair and square.
What the court said, making references to the malfunctioning
of the card reader, was that there was over-voting and
rigging. But no evidence of rigging or electoral malpractice
was tendered before the court. No security agency, the Police,
the Army, Navy, etc, gave any evidence of violence or
malpractice. What the court said was that the card reader
showed that X Y Z voters were accredited through the card
reader and more votes were cast. So, the court cancelled the
elections in those three LGAs and ruled that there was over-
voting. But everyone in Nigeria knows that in the 2015 election
it was not only the card reader’s accreditation that was used.


INEC announced openly that because the card readers were
malfunctioning, manual accreditation should be used to
support it. As a result, some people, whose accreditation
could not be done by the malfunctioning card readers, were
actually accredited manually. But the Appeal Court ignored this
obvious fact. Let me tell you, if we accept this, it means that
every other election done in 2015, including Buhari’s election,
and the re-run elections done this year, should be cancelled.
You are from Item in Abia North, why are you so passionate
about this matter?


I know the consequences of what the Court of Appeal is trying
to do. Abia is on precipice. Their judgment portends grave
danger to Abia because where people feel that you have
deliberately used money, power or influence to take
governorship or ruler ship, they will resist it. Recall the
Operation Wetie in the First Republic. It also happened in the
Second Republic. If this situation is not remedied, the security
challenges in Abia State awhile ago may be a child’s play, God
forbid!


Are you saying there is a threat by the three local government
areas that unless Ikpeazu becomes governor, Abia would be
under siege?



No, it is not just the three local government areas that are
crying for justice in this matter. People from Abia North and
Abia Central have spoken out in support of justice. Take what
happened in Nigeria in 1998/1999 when the whole country
deliberately gave the South-West the opportunity to produce
the president. Then, all the political parties gave their tickets to
the Yoruba South-West because after the June 12 annulment
of Chief MKO Abiola’s clear election, Nigeria was destabilized.




But is Alex Otti not also from Ngwaland, from Abia South, like
Okezie Ikpeazu?


No, Otti is from Arochukwu. This strange story about his being
an Ngwa man started in 2015 when he wanted to contest the
governorship and realized that it has been zoned to Ngwaland.
We all know that Dr. Otti is ‘nwa Mazi’ from Arochukwu. At
best, he is a customary tenant in Ngwa land. But it is clear
that Otti is the proxy of APC in Abia State.


No, Otti is in APGA. He has never been in APC. He is the
governorship candidate in Abia State.


Yes, Otti is the proxy of APC in Abia State. He is a member of
APC. His body and soul is in APC although he has not
announced his membership of the party officially. But if by a
stroke of wide magic the Supreme Court upholds the ruling of
the Appeal Court and declares Otti as the governor, within 48
hours he will defect to APC.



Is that the fear of the PDP?


It is not the fear but we know that Otti has a pact with APC.
You help me become governor and I will join you. Immediately
after the presidential election, Otti went to the first NEC
meeting of APC. For what? To seek assistance to become the
governor. Don’t forget that one of his bosom friend and
classmate or schoolmate, who is a serving minister and a
former governor, is the person who facilitated this thing. Look,
APC procured the Abia judgment for Otti. That is what is
happening.


Are you insinuating that the court was political?


The judgment they gave was not based on any evidence
before them. It was not based on law; it was not based on
facts. So, to most people, this Abia Appeal court was biased.
It was partisan. It is a primary issue in law that when a litigant
tells the judges, my Lord, I do not think I will get justice
before you; I do not want you to handle my case. It is primary
that the said judge or justices should hands off. It is primary
for you to hands off to show that you are not biased. But in
this instant case, PDP complained from onset but the court
refused and went on to give this judgment. So, the fear of the
litigant has been justified and when you remember that in this
same dispensation, some litigants wrote and made similar
complaints about the composition of their panel and the
judges listened and a new panel was set up.