Dr. Olusegun Mimiko

Peter Obi is Anambra gov – Supreme Court rules – Nullifies Andy Uba’s election – Yar’Adua orders Uba to quit office immediately

THE Supreme Court on Thursday returned Peter Obi as the authentic governor of Anambra State, voiding the swearing-in of Chief Andy Uba as the governor of the state. The Supreme Court, in a unanimous judgment, faulted the conduct of election into the office of governor of Anambra State on April 14, while the tenure of Mr. Obi was yet to expire and, therefore, ordered that Obi should return to his seat immediately. President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, in reaction to the judgment, ordered Chief Uba to vacate the office with immediate effect.

Terminating Chief Uba’s administration, thereby making him the shortest serving governor having spent only 16 days in office after he was sworn in on May 29, 2007, Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu, who delivered the lead judgment, held that Section 180 (2) (a) upon which Obi anchored his case provides that he shall vacate office at the expiration of a period of four years commencing from when he took the oath of office and allegiance.

Obi was sworn in as the governor of Anambra State on March 27, 2006 after Dr. Chris Ngige was removed from office as the governor of the state. The Court of Appeal in Awka voided the election of Ngige and declared Obi the winner of the April 19, 2003 election contrary to the claim of the Independent National Electoral Commission.

A day before Uba was sworn-in as the governor, the apex court warned that if anybody is sworn in as governor and they later found out that Obi’s tenure had not been expended, the person sworn in shall quit office.

Justice George Oguntade, who made the declaration on May 28, 2007, said, “The swearing-in of anybody tomorrow does not extinguish the res of this matter. If anybody is sworn in and we found out that the incumbent’s tenure of office has not been expended, the person sworn-in has to quit office, and the election (governorship) in the state would be voided”.

Justice Katsina-Alu agreed with the arguments canvassed by Obi that his four-year tenure would expire on March 27, 2010 having been sworn in as governor on March 27, 2006. Section 180 (2) (a) in question reads, “Subject to the provisions of subsection (1) of this section, the governor shall vacate his office at the expiration of a period of four years commencing from the date when:

(a) In the case of a person first elected as governor under this constitution, he took the oath of allegiance and oath of office.” The apex court held that the court below was wrong in holding that Obi’s case was an election matter to be adjudicated upon by the election tribunal.

Thereafter, the court invoked its powers under section 22 of the acts to pronounce on the merit of the case. Justice Katsina-Alu said the Supreme Court or any other court had a duty to protect the constitution as doing otherwise would spell doom for the country and the nation’s democracy. He, accordingly, made the following orders;

Other justices on the seven-man panel agreed with the lead judgment and the consequential orders.

In his judgment, Justice Oguntade held that the two lower courts were in error to have declined jurisdiction to hear the case, leading them into an erroneous conclusion that the matter fell under the jurisdiction of the election tribunal.
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Agagu dismisses N1bn bribe claim. By SUNDAY KUDAISI, Daily Champion.

A pro-democracy group based in Ondo State, Campaign for Sustainable Democracy in Nigeria (CSDN) has raised an alarm over alleged plans by Governor Olusegun Agagu to bribe a five-man election petition tribunal with N1 billion.

But swiftly, Ondo State governor, Dr Agagu has denied the allegation describing it as ‘tissue of lies.” He spoke through his Chief of Staff, Chief Femi Agagu.

CSDN, in a release signed by Dotun Alao and Sunday Ebietomiye, chairman and secretary respectively, alleged that the plans to bribe the Justice G.M. Nabaruma Tribunal with N250 million each was allegedly taken last weekend at the caucus meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the Government House, Akure.

The Ondo State government is presently contending with how to tackle series of petitions pending before the tribunal as virtually all the political parties which contested the highly contentious April 14, 2007 gubernatorial and House of Assembly election in the State are challenging the victory of Dr Olusegun Agagu.

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The findings of a panel conceived by Dr. Olusegun Agagu, as Aviation Minister, to probe the irregularities that were synonymous with the defunct Nigeria Airways Limited, threaten to consume him. SENIOR CORRESPONDENT, by Joe Nwankwo, reports from Abuja. The Independent

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When in 1999 Dr. Olusegun Agagu, the incumbent and re-elected governor of Ondo State, was appointed the Aviation Minister and he subsequently proposed the setting up of a panel of inquiry on the performance of Nigerian Airways Limited (NAL), never did he envisage that the action would later turn out to be his albatross.

The Justice Obiora Nwazota Panel was set up following the sharp decline in the fortunes of NAL and the concern expressed by many Nigerians in that regard. According to the Executive Summary of the Panel’s report: “Mr. President approved a Seven-man Panel to examine the performance of NAL from 1983 to date (1998).

The constitution of the Panel was based on the advice of the then Minister of Aviation, Dr. Olusegun Agagu. The Panel which was inaugurated on September 7, 1999 was mandated to look into all facets of the airline, now in liquidation, during the period under review, to identify reasons responsible for the decline in its fortunes, and proffer solutions.

Among the reasons for setting up the panel was to facilitate payment of debts, especially judgment debts, owed by NAL to various creditors.

The Nwazota Panel submitted its report three months after it was set up making several recommendations, among which was the indictment of some members of the Presidential Taskforce (PTF) that managed the airline. It also ordered that various sums of money that were misappropriated be refunded to government.

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The president-elect, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua yesterday assured Nigerians that on assumption of office on May 29, he would set up a committee to review the electoral laws in the country with a view to removing all the pitfalls.
He also added that part of the terms of reference for the committee would be to take a special look at the just concluded April elections and make appropriate recommendations.

He spoke while receiving former Vice President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme who paid him a solidarity visit, and advised the president-elect to reconcile aggrieved Nigerians within and outside the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as a measure of making a success of his administration.

Read more at ThisDay

Governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in Ondo State, Olusegun Mimiko, on Monday, started his legal battle against the re-election of Olusegun Agagu on brighter notes, as the court granted his two earlier prayers before the tribunal.

Mimiko was granted an ex-parte motion, compelling the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to allow the petitioner unhindered access to all documents relating to the governorship and House of Assembly elections.

The tribunal, chaired by Justice J. Nabaruma, also granted in favour of Mimiko, an ex-parte order for a substitute service on Agagu, a copy of the petition submitted to the tribunal by the former, challenging the governor’s declaration as the winner of the governorship election.

With the two orders granted, the petitioner is allowed to inspect the ballot papers, both used and unused for the elections, the result sheets, forms: EC8A, EC8B, EC8C and EC8D for the governorship poll; and EC8A1, EC8B1, EC8C1 and EC8D1 for the House of Assembly’s.

Mimiko would also be allowed to serve the respondent through a third party or by other means, as a substitute to serving him directly or personally.

The legal team of the LP candidate was led by Dr. Oluremi Ayeni. Other members include the secretary of the team, Oluremi Olatubora and the legal adviser to LP, Yinka Akinyosoye.

Source

17 council chairmen in ICPC net – Over missing N72m LG fund. By Idowu Samuel, Tribune

THE chairmen of 17 local government s in Ondo State are in trouble over an alleged stealing of the sum of N72million from the statutory allocations for the 18 local government councils in the state, a case which the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) is currently investigating.

According to findings by Sunday Tribune, the alleged chairmen, on the platform of ALGON, connived to remove the sum from the local government statutory allocation in Ondo State under the pretence that the sum would be used to purchase typhoid vaccines for distribution to all the local governments in the state.

The chairmen, it was learnt, allegedly perpetrated the act in 2004 in when they removed the sum N72 million from the local government joint account and shared it without purchasing any vaccine for their respective council areas.

Investigations carried out at the ICPC headquarters revealed that each of the 17 local government chairmen took away the sum of N4million on the pretext of using it to purchase the typhoid vaccines for their respective local government.

It was only the chairman of Akure local government area who refused to partake in the sharing of the largesse, according to investigations, as he was said to have insisted that the said money should be lodged directly into the treasury of his local government to execute the purchase of the vaccines.

Sources at the ICPC hinted that the money deducted from Akure local government area was indeed paid into the council’s account at Pacific Bank, now Unity Bank, located at Oyemekun Road, Akure.

A petition said to have been forwarded to ICPC by an aggrieved party in Ondo State prompted a thorough investigation of the scam in 2006 while the anti-graft commission reportedly affirmed that the fraud was indeed perpetrated.

Mimiko seeks to personally serve Agagu with petition. By Dayo Johnson. The Vanguard

• Agagu resorts to delay tactics 

AKURE — THE Labour Party’s governorship candidate in the April 14 election in Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko yesterday filed a Motion Exparte to personally serve the incumbent governor, Dr. Olusegun Agagu with the petition filed before election tribunal challenging Agagu’s victory at the polls.

Dr. Mimiko had dragged Dr. Agagu to the tribunal asking that the victory given to him should be voided and that he should be declared winner of the April 14 election.

In the motion exparte filed by his counsel\, Mr. Tunde Atere before the Election Petition Tribunal, he prayed the Tribunal to grant “an order of substituted service permitting and directing by your Petitioner or any appropriate officer of the Tribunal to serve the petition on the 1st Respondent (Agagu) through his personal secretary and/or any of the officers at the Governor’s office, Alagbaka, Akure, Ondo State through any of the reputable courier delivery services to enable the petitioner bring the petition to the notice of the 1st Respondent.”

In the alternative, Mimiko is praying the tribunal for: “an order of substituted service permitting and directing your Petitioner to publish the notice of receipt of Petition in one of the Nigerian newspapers.

In an affidavit in support of the motion exparte, Mimiko averred that Agagu was supposed to be served personally according to law.

He added that effort to serve the governor proved abortive as his Personal Assistant Pastor Ola Amuda undertook to receive the petition on behalf of the respondent which according to him is contrary to the electoral law.
The motion became necessary following difficulties by the bailiffs to serve the governor with the petition filed by the Labour Party’s governorship candidate.

Indictment: Agagu Loses Bid to Stop Probe. ThisDay

A Federal High Court in Abuja yesterday assumed jurisdiction in a suit seeking to void the clearance of Ondo governor,  Dr. Olusegun Agagu, to contest the April 14 gubernatorial election.

Justice Abimbola Ogie dismissed an objection filed by Agagu’s counsel, Chief Adetokunbo Kayode (SAN), challenging the court jurisdiction to entertain the suit.Ogie held that the case, though a pre-election matter, had not been overtaken by events and that the relief being sought by the plaintiffs was not for the exclusive determination of the Election Petitions Tribunal.

She also dismissed the objection that the governor was covered by Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution (Immunity Clause) from any  civil and criminal cases while in office. Ogie said that Agagu could not be protected  by the immunity clause from being investigated  over an allegation that he had been indicted by  an Administrative Panel of Enquiry and was,  therefore, not qualified to participate in the polls. She ordered the counsel to the contending  parties to file their briefs of argument on the  substantive case and adjourned till May 17  for the adoption of the briefs by the lawyers.

In a swift reaction, Kayode today filed an  appeal against the court decision before  the Court of Appeal in Abuja. In the appeal, he contended that the judge  erred in law when she held that the suit was  not a post-election matter for the exclusive  determination of the Election Petitions  Tribunal.

Mimiko challenges Agagu’s victory at tribunal. By Femi Makinde, Punch

The Labour Party governorship candidate in Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, on Monday challenged the declaration of Dr. Olusegun Agagu, as the winner of the April 14 poll at the Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Akure.

The petition has Agagu, the Peoples Democratic Party, Independent National Electoral Commission and 15 others as respondents.

Mimiko, who arrived at the State High Court, the venue of the tribunal, at about 10:20 am in company with his deputy, Alli Olanusi, and the Party Chairman in the state, Dr. Olaiya Oni, with thousands of his supporters prayed the tribunal to set aside INEC’s declaration that Agagu won the majority of the votes cast during the poll.

He also prayed the tribunal to declare him as the duly-elected governor of Ondo State.

Mimiko, in the 45,000-page petitions alleged that Agagu and the PDP unlawfully deployed their agents across the state on the election day to steal ballot boxes and other election materials.

This, he said, was ”demonstrated by the current Deputy Governor, Chief Omolade Oluwateru who personally snatched, hijacked and stole many ballot boxes in Akure and other local government areas. Otunba Omolade was briefly arrested by the Police and later released.”

The LP governorship candidate also stated that Agagu did not score the 25 per cent of the total number of lawful votes cast in 12 of the 18 local government areas of the state contrary to section 179 (2) of the 1999 constitution.

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Ondo LP: We’ll reclaim our mandate – The Nation

• Files a 45,000-page petition at the State Elections Petition Tribunal in Akure on Monday.
• Reclaiming the ‘mandate’ allegedly stolen by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is a goal that must be accomplished.
• Legal team led by Chief Ola Olanipekun [SAN].
• “Volumes of evidence” to prove that the Agagu administration allegedly massively rigged the Governorship and House of Assembly elections in the state by deploying many of its top officials, including the deputy governor, to snatch ballot boxes.
• Rigging plans were hatched long before the elections to include pre- and post-election strategies.

Special Assistant to the party’s governorship candidate in the state, Mr Sanmi Lawal, told The Nation in Lagos that the people of the state would be let down if the party refused to reclaim the ‘mandate’ “they willingly gave us but which was stolen by the PDP in the state”. Read full article.