On the relocation of Akwa Ibom election tribunal to Abuja

There are three  places I loathe vis iting, in no particular order, the hospital, the police station and the court of law. The miseries and sorrow in the hospitals always leaves a scare in my mind each time I visit, it always reminds me how God in his infinite mercy keeps me healthy, hence my everlasting gratitude to him. The police station is an experience I distaste with passion; the mere ambience irritates me like hell. The time wasted the meticulous routines, the deceit, hypocrisy and heartless nature of the officers drives me outs. 

I have never visited a court of law in session until penultimate Saturday when I went to the Environmental Sanitation Court situated at Ebong Umo Itong Street in Uyo, the then venue of the Election 

Petition Tribunal of the recently concluded elections in the state. I went as an observer, with interest in the case between Hon. Henry Archibong and Mr. Okon Imeh. I was not disappointed or surprised, the orderly way the proceedings went was impressive but I was bored to hell by the methodology. The proceeding, went on in a very peaceful atmosphere, there was no security breach or concern. I couldn’t help but notice the in adequacies in some of our learned men, or how can a trained lawyer filing a suit against and election in Itu Federal Constituency conclude by praying the tribunal to declare the election of Uyo Federal Constituency null and void?

The relocation of the tribunal to Abuja is the subject of my concern. I have an ear to the ground, I have not heard of any security concern around and within the tribunal venue, how come the tribunal has been transferred to Abuja because of security concerns? Is it a ploy to intimidate the members to decide the cases against a particular party? Why single out Rivers and Akwa Ibom States who maintained the status quo and voted massively for PDP candidates in all the elections? 

For the benefit of hindsight, in 2007 when President Yar’Adua was sworn in, the supreme court declared Peter Obi of APGA as the authentic governor of Anambra state, Andy Uba of PDP just won the gubernatorial seat and was waiting to be sworn in (or was he already sworn in?) as the governor of the state. The then President   Yar’ Adua ordered the respect of the judgment and the immediate swearing-in of Peter Obi.  The same thing happened in Edo State. Jonathan the ‘clueless’ also ordered the respect of the court orders in Ondo, Ekiti and Osun States. This acts by the PDP President gave the then ACN the verve to lay a foundation to what snowballed into APC today. If the two Presidents had followed the footsteps of the Do-or-die exponent, there would be no APC today to savor the honey of electoral victory against the PDP. Heaven wouldn’t have fallen, and Nigeria would still be one!

APC as a party shouldn’t take the goodwill of Nigerians for granted. They have never hidden their urge to capture Rivers and Akwa Ibom States at all cost. Didn’t the then Inspector General of Police deploy very high ranking police officers to the two states during the gubernatorial elections? PDP still won convincingly in the two states. What APC should note is that if they criminally conquer these two states, their goodwill will wane, and the international community will see their true colour. As for Akwa Ibom State, even if the governorship election is conducted five times, PDP will still win. The people of Akwa Ibom State have spoken, they believe in rotation and a core Uyo Senatorial District person has no justification to aspire to rule the state in the next eight years. If APC was that sincere and sensitive, why didn’t they give their gubernatorial ticket to an Oron man? At a time like this, Akwa Ibom State needs an Udom Emmanuel to take it to the next level. 

The broom revolutionaries should leave Akwa Ibom alone, they have 23 states in their kitty, must they conquer the whole country? Instead of looking for more states to grab, they should concentrate on good governance, and delivering their electoral promises of Eldorado to the Nigerian populace.
Buhari will write his name in gold if he rejects any form of manipulation of the judiciary. 

He should call the jackals around him to order, the failure of PDP to win the last presidential election should be an eye opener to APC, don’t take Nigerians for granted!

The relocation of the tribunal to Abuja has robbed me of the opportunity to witness the next sitting of the tribunal, they have robbed supporters and sympathizes of both parties the opportunity to follow the proceedings. The local media in the state cannot report the proceedings, hence the good people of Akwa Ibom State are denied the right to know what is going on at the tribunal. 

The judiciary should resist any attempt at compromising its independence, they are the last baton of hope of the common man, and they should uphold their integrity for history to be kind to them.