News
Andy Uba Drags Election
to NJC
--Says tribunal members were biased
The last may not have been heard about the
2011 Anambra-South Senatorial election which was worn by Chief
Andy Emmanuel Uba but which was, on December 21, 2011, annulled
by the National Assembly Election Appeal Panel headed by the
Hon. Justice Helen M.Ogunwumiju.
Uba’s election was annulled following legal
action by his main opponent in the said poll,Hon. Chuma Nzeribe
of the All Progressives Grand Alliace[APGA], who rejected result
of the election and headed for the Election Petition Tribunal.
Nzeribe lost at the lower tribunal but went to the Appeal
Tribunal, which ruled in his favour.
Uba has not only taken steps to ensure that
the ruling of the Appeal Panel which set aside his victory, is
reviewed, he has also dragged the panel before the National
Judicial Council[NJC], on charges bothering on bias in the way
members of the panel arrived at their verdict
Among other things, the Senator, national
accord gathered, had written to the Acting President of the
Court of Appeal, complaining of how his effort to seek redress
in this matter, was being frustrated by those who handed down
the judgment
In a letter, through his lawyer, Arthur Obi
Okafor[SAN],dated January 12,2012 and addressed to the Acting
President of the Court of Appeal, Uba said, “we have earlier
applied to the Deputy Chief Registrar of the Court of Appeal,
Enugu Division, for the Certified True Copy of the aforesaid
judgement. A copy of our said Application letter is annexed. The
Decision in the Appeal was pronounced on the 22nd day of
December, 2011, while reasons for the Decision were reserved.
Up till now,the said judgement which should contain the reason
for the Decision had not been issued to us”.
He complained that “UNLESS YOUR LORDSHIP
INTERVENS AND DIRECTS THAT A COPY OF THE JUDGEMENT BE ISSUED TO
US, WE ARE CONVINCED THAT THE SAID JUDGEMENT WILL NOT TIMEOUSLY
BE MADE AVAILABLE TO US TO ENABLY US SEEK FURTHER REDRESS’’.
Also, in another petition to the NJC
Chairman, dated December 28, 20111, Uba complained of “Grave
bias and denial of justice’’, against the Appeal Panel members.
In the petition he said, ‘’it is with a heavy heart and total
displeasure that I have been constrained to write you over the
injustice meted out to me by His Lordship, Hon. Justice Helen
M.Ogunwumiju JCA-led Panel of Justices that heard the
aforementioned Appeal and proceeded to nullify my election,
despite the glaring and distinct fact that only 14 wards ,out of
of the entire 118 wards in Anambra –South Senatorial District
were being complained of, by the Appellants for
irregularities’’.
He argued that even the irregularities that
were complained of by Nzeribe and his party, were not proved
before the tribunal, yet judgment was entered in their favour.
“In the first place, due to stark lack of proof of any
irregularity at the trial Tribunal, judgment was entered in my
favour in the Petition . Consequently, the said Petition
instituted against me by All Progressives Grand Alliance and
Hon. Chuma Nzeribe, was dismissed. The matter now came up on
Appeal at the Enugu Judicial Division of the Court of Appeal
as the final Court in National Assembly Election matters”.
The petition alleged that the Hon.
Ogunwumiju led Appeal Tribunal delivered a ‘’preconceived
judgment’’ against Senator Uba. “I shall demonstrate presently
that Hon. Justice M.Ogunwumiju, JCA, and members of her Panel
delivered a preconceived judgment against me without bothering
to read through the Petition, the judgment of the Tribunal’’,
Uba said, adding that ‘’Hon. Justice Helen M. Ogunwumiju, JCA
who has been compromised against me, had her mind fixated at
nullifying my election without regard to the nature of the case
before her’’.
One of the major blunders Uba raised in his
petition against members of the Panel, is that they went out of
the legal norm, to grant to the appellants, things they did not
pray for, in that while the APGA and Nzeribe were said to have
complained of irregularities in 14, out of the 118 wards in the
Senatorial District, the Panel decided to cancel the election in
the entire district.
Raising this issue, Uba’s petition, among
other things, said, “the law is settled if not elementary, that
a Court of law has no powers to grant a relief not sought or
more reliefs than are sought. The law is sacrosanct that a Court
of law can only grant less but certainly not more reliefs than
are souht’’.
It added that “facts or irregularities
alleged in the petition cannot super cede the reliefs sought in
the Petition. In deciding whatever orders to be made upon
conclusion of hearing, a court of law is bound to only grant the
reliefs sought in the Petition, irrespective of the facts or
irregularities alleged in the body of the Petition’’.
Uba prayed the NJC to “urgently intervene
to have this judgment clarified and to institute a high powered
panel to investigate the complaints and offer redress’’
National accord gathered that already, a
review panel headed by Hon. Justice Denton West, is in place to
look at the issues raised by Uba in his petition, among other
things. The Denton West review panel, we understand, may
commence sitting in Enugu today.
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