Despite Appeal Court’s Judgement, Rivers APC Crisis Lingers

By Mike Odiegwu, Port Harcourt

The Court of Appeal’s judgement that sacked Igo Aguma as the Caretaker Committee Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State and affirmed the appointment of Isaac Ogbobula by the National Caretaker Committee as the Rivers interim leader has yet to resolve the lingering crisis in the party.

While the camp of the party loyal to the Transport Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, celebrated the judgement, the Senator Magnus Abe’s group on Friday said Aguma had already file an appeal against the judgment and served his rivals.

Speaking in Port Harcourt, the Director-General, Freedom House and former Commissioner for Justice in the state, Worgu Boms, also disclosed the faction’s plans to float a litigation fund aimed at pursuing members’ quest to entrench internal democracy in the party.

He said besides the Aguma’s appeal, there was a subsisting judgement in a separate case of Ibrahim Umah and 9 Ors V APC that continued to remain binding on all members of the party.

He said the court affirmed the rights of Ibrahim Umah and other thousands of party members, who paid for forms but were denied the forms to participate in the congresses saying that the congresses could not validly hold without their participation.

Boms said in that judgment, the court described as stupid, the approach and conduct of the leadership of the party in the matter insisting that no one should expect to benefit from such stupidity.

He said: “This decision of the Supreme Court was in affirmation of the Judgment of the Justice Kelechi Wogu of the State High Court.
As it stands, the decision in this judgment of the Supreme Court affirming the rights of the Ibrahim Umah and his thousand others, remains unchanged and cannot ever be altered by anyone, no matter how highly placed, as the Judgment of the Supreme Court, according to the Supreme Court itself, ‘is for all time and for all ages’.

“So, the rights of all the Ibrahim Umahs, who paid for forms to contest for the Congresses are preserved for as long as it takes the APC to organize the congresses and until the congresses are validly held with their participation, unless they themselves decide not to participate.

“It is a decision that can never ever be academic. It will stand until it fulfills that for which it was decided. Moreover, when that time comes, they will not need to pay for forms anymore, having already previously paid for the same”.

Boms explained that after the decision on Ibrahim Umah, another set of aggrieved party members, who also paid for forms, but were not issued, filed a separate suit in the High Court praying the court to declare that whenever the congresses would hold, only persons, who paid for the forms, at the relevant period in May 2018, according to the guidelines issued then should stand for the congresses.

He remembered that the court after hearing from Dele Moses and his aggrieved group and after hearing the APC agreed with Dele Moses and granted them their reliefs.

“It is this judgment of the Justice George Omereji, then of the state High Court, now retired, that the APC appealed against. They did not like the Judgment. They want those who didn’t pay for forms then, to come now to pay and participate when, ab initio, they did not issue forms to the Dele Moses and Ibrahim Umahs who obeyed the party Guidelines and showed interest in serving the party by paying as and when due.

“This position of the party is curious: Despising and seeking to exclude those who want to serve the party by paying on time according to schedule, while wanting to bring in and pamper those not really, genuinely interested.

“Consequently, the APC appealed against the Judgment of Omereji J, as he then was. It is this Appeal that the court of Appeal decided on Tuesday..The Court of Appeal decided also the Igo Aguma suit. That decision on Igo Aguma, has been celebrated by the APC Rivers faction loyal to the Honourable Minister of Transportation, without a mention of this Dele Moses’ Judgment by the same Court.

“At any rate, Igo Aguma has responsibly stepped aside for his Deputy, Ben Chioma, to be acting in his stead while he pursues his appeal against the Judgment. I can declare to you that the Appeal has already been filed and the party served”, he said.

Boms explained that a faction loyal to Amaechi appealed the judgement on Dele Moses and transfered the case from the Port Harcourt Division of the appellate court to the Abuja division.

He said: “After hearing the parties, especially the objection that Dele Moses’ lawyers raised in their notice of preliminary objection, that court , on Tuesday, dismissed the Appeal of the Appellants.

“It upheld the objection of Dele Moses’ lawyers as argued in their preliminary objection, that the time of the Minister’s faction of the party to be heard and to determine the matter, had expired.

“In the language of the Court of Appeal, ‘the Notice of objection filed by the respondents (that is, Dele Moses’ lawyers) challenging the Jurisdiction of this court to adjudicate on the appellants appeal is well founded and is hereby upheld. Consequently, the appellants Appeal which is founded on the Notice of appeal dated and filed on the 10th day of June, 2020 is hereby struck out same having been caught by the provisions of the Constitution of the federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended’

“It is clear therefore, that the Justice Omereji’s Judgment was not upturned. It is preserved and is intact. What that means is that the decision that only those who paid for forms are the only ones to participate in the congresses whenever they shall hold, remains; unless the faction affected by it appeals this Judgment further to the Supreme Court and succeeds in upturning it. Till then, it has to come to stay like the decision in Ibrahim Umah”.

He added: “Whenever APC Rivers shall be holding its congresses, it is only those who paid for forms at the relevant time in May 2018 when the party announced the congresses and provided guidelines for payment that will be eligible, in law, by these judgments, to participate.

“If you exclude any of them, you are acting in contravention. If you include another person, you are also acting in contravention. Either way, persons will continue to trouble the party by going back to court to complain. Only party members, not minding which faction, who paid as and when due, are eligible”.

Boms lambasted the Amaechi’s faction for denigrating the wife of a judge of the High Court describing the attack on the woman as savage.

He said the judge’s only offence, for which his wife was dragged in for public ridicule, was that he handed down a judgment that did not favour.

He, however, noted that the same judge struck out the contempt proceedings instituted before him against chieftains of the same faction such as Senator Andrew Igbonule Uchendu and Sokonte Davis.

Boms said the rival faction took audacity to new heights when it began to issue warnings and threats to the judiciary, describing it as an attempt to infuse timidity into the judicature to allow impunity in APC Rivers to continue unchecked.

“This is unacceptable. This same faction has had Judgment in their favour from the same Judiciary. It is when they lose, that they issue warnings and threats but celebrate when they win. This is insincere.
We want to make it clear that no power exists in this world to stop anyone from access to Justice and that the Rivers state Judiciary has a Constitutional Duty to hear anyone , any of us, everyone who conceives and even, imagines, that his rights are being or are likely to be or have been trampled upon.

“We, hereby, announce, that as civilized politicians, we shall continue to have recourse to the judiciary whenever we have need to and the state judiciary itself, cannot do anything about that much less, order us as to how and when we wish to file a suit there according to the laws of the land which they have sworn to uphold.

“It is theirs to decide whether our complaint is cognizant in law or not, meritorious or not. That is their prerogative and nothing more. No judge should allow himself or herself to fall prey to the trickery of bullying politicians who scare judges and litigants away from seeking and administering Justice by threatening judges as that faction of the APC Rivers State is wont to”.

“We remind all that without the judiciary, Rt. Honourable Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, now Minister of Transportation, would not have been a Governor of this state, in the first place. Without the Courts, Senator Andrew Igbonule Uchendu would not have been a Senator of the Federal Republic, amongst much else.

“It is too late now in the day, to want to incite the people against the judiciary by calling judges names, all because you want a festering of political authoritarianism. This is unacceptable and will never be allowed.

“Indeed, we demand that the doors of the Halls of Justice remain open at all times like, the General Hospitals for, no one knows when evil will prowl as it does when they assume that the institutions that listen to the oppressed and the sick, are asleep. The price for liberty, we venture to remind all, is eternal vigilance.

The Court of Appeal Abuja, put aside the festive season and public holidays and Short Court Vacations, to hear election-related matters and to deliver the judgments it did on Tuesday. That is as it should be, especially in election and political matters in which time is of the essence.

We urge the Rivers State judiciary to emulate them and to be open, even on Sundays and all public holidays for any who seeks to rush there to be saved from oppression for, in matters of this nature, an hour of delay or even less, may cause irreparable harm”.

He added: “We hereby announce our decision to float a Litigation Fund in Rivers APC, in aid of recourse to court to assist members in their exertions to entrench Internal democracy in our party.

“When the plans are concluded we shall publicly be soliciting funds from interested public members who believe in the ideals of democracy and clean politics devoid of one man show. No one can and should be allowed to attempt to stop anyone from access to justice. The consequences on the society, are dire”.

Following the judgments in the cases of Ibrahim Umah and Dele Moses, Boms directed all party members with proofs that they paid, at the relevant time, for nomination forms for the botched congresses, to go to their respective LGA Election Committees for documentation.

He said: “It does not matter which side of the divide you are, what is important, it is hereby stressed, is that you paid for forms at the relevant period and thus eligible for the Congresses whenever they will hold. Only those who paid at the time, are eligible.

“After Documentation, you will get to know the next level and how it is being worked out to ensure that only what the laws and the courts say in this matter, is what will prevail.”

– The Nation