Anambra Crisis: APGA Warns Against State of Emergency

Daily Champion (Lagos)
NEWS
January 6, 2004
Posted to the web January 6, 2004

By MATTHIAS NWOGU
Enugu
ALL Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) yesterday said the court order for the
removal of Gov. Chris Ngige from office was a prelude to the declaration of a
state of emergency in the area.
Chief Chekwas Okorie, APGA National Chairman, who spoke to newsmen in Enugu,
said the decision to remove Ngige could generate strong protests from the
people and force the Federal government to declare a state of emergency.
He warned that any attempt to use the confusion deliberately generated and the
reaction of the people who have been so provoked, to impose a state of
emergency would bring chaos to the country.
A Lagos-based legal practitioner, Mr. Goddy Uwazurike, who also spoke on the
Anambra situation, asked Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Muhammadu
Uwais to pay attention to what the courts are doing in the interest of
democracy.
Chief Okorie said Igbo leaders could no longer in sincerity restrain the people
from taking their destiny in their hands having done that for so long,
especially as President Olusegun Obasanjo and his government have not
restrained themselves from extremely provoking the people.
He said the Anambra situation could only deceive the ignorant few as what had
happened was a fall out of the July 10, 2003 abduction incident on Gov. Ngige.
"There is no doubt that the July 10 coup is ongoing and it is about being
completed. Perhaps, this will rank as one of the longest coups in Nigeria's
history having started since July 10, 2003," he said.
Okorie said the idea of removing Gov. Ngige through an exparte order was to
cause confusion and lead to the declaration of a state of emergency.
He alleged that some persons in Abuja took that option to frustrate APGA's
imminent victory at the Anambra State election tribunal.
According to him, the option of causing confusion was attractive to the persons
in Abuja because APGA would be closing its case at the tribunal on January 10
this year and would surely win.
"Everybody knows, Obasanjo knows more than most people and his Attorney General
and Minister of Justice also know, that it would be a matter of days for
judgement to come in favour of APGA and we will now have a foot-hold," he said.
Chief Okorie said he knew that the much acclaimed peace between Gov. Ngige and
the Chief Chris Uba camp, brokered in Owerri by Senate President Adolphus
Wabara, was a ruse as Ngige would have implemented it to his peril.
"When Ngige and Uba went and had their so-called peace meeting, it was clear to
all of us that it was an exercise in futility because Ngige would have
implemented that agreement, as published, to his own peril and of course, to
Uba and his group it was clear that he has achieved reputation for not
honouring agreements," he said.
The APGA chairman added that when Ngige said he would not restore his former
deputy, Dr. Okey Udeh "the Senate President who was supposed to be a peace-
maker issued a statement that the agreement at Owerri was irrevocable. This was
a pointer to a breakdown."
He also said Ngige was facing the opposition of the National Assembly as
represented by the Senate President. "So how will he service, he queried.
Chief Okorie, however, regretted the plight of Ndigbo in a court they fought so
hard for both its independence and economic growth yet, they have not been
allowed to be fully integrated into the policy.
Meanwhile, expressing disappointment at the development of an Enugu High Court
ordering the Police to remove Governor Ngige from office, Uwazurike dismissed
the basis of the ruling.
He described the said court order as no more than "a fake". Whatever the issues
in the politics and crisis in Anambra state may be, the attorney said; there is
ample ground for any lawyer and judge to know that the order was baseless.
According to him, "the Supreme Court of Nigeria had in Dalhatu versus Turaki
(2003) ruled that only when an event takes place within a state can a High
Court has jurisdiction. Therefore the Enugu High Court have no jurisdiction" in
the matter.
Assuming the said court has any such jurisdiction, Uwazurike added, Section 308
of the Constitution provides immunity for the governor in the matter.
Beyond that, he said, "when suing a person outside a state, you have to give
the person 30days notice to appear" and cited Sken Consult vs. Ukoh as a back
up case.
"A suit filed around Christmas and served on the Anambra State Ministry of
Justice cannot meet the 30 days requirement for a ruling to be made... .There
must be fair hearing".
In law, the legal practitioner said, there is an expression "ex nihilo, nikil,
fit" meaning "out of nothing, nothing can fit".
The judiciary in Nigeria has gone far ahead of this type of situation,Uwazurike
said, but appealed to Justice Uwais to ensure that another Egbo Egbo setting is
not been played out.

   

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