Beyond The 2024 Imo Governorship Election Petition Tribunal Judgments- What Next?
On Friday the 24th day of May 2024, in two separate judgments delivered by the Election Petition Tribunal, the respective petitions filed by LP and PDP against APC over the outcome of the 11 November 2023 Imo State governorship election were dismissed.
Rules, procedures, decisions or judgments of Courts are characteristically intricate, complicated, complex and convoluted. Members of the public are seldom versed or knowledgeable in Court processes or familiar with technicalities and procedures of adjudication in the superior courts. As a result, most members of the public typically concern themselves with the final outcome of the case or judgment of the Court- who won and or who lost in the suit?
The reason or reasons adduced by the Court in arriving at its decision or judgment are usually better appreciated by jurists, lawyers, legal scholars and analysts.
In Nigeria, the responses or behaviours of litigants and their supporters to judgments handed down by the Courts in political matters are highly predictable. Characteristically, the side adjudged victorious in the case will glowingly describe the judgment as victory for democracy and rule of law. They have kind words for the judiciary while extolling it as the bastion of democracy. On the flip side, putting it mildly and in laconic sense, the side not favoured by the judgment of the Court, more often than not, have no kind words for the judiciary.
For such losers and their sympathisers, the judiciary is no longer the last hope of the common man and defender of the oppressed. In political suits, whether pre-election matters or post-election petitions, either for the right or wrong reasons, the judiciary ends up as “the whipping boy”.
It has come to be the abnormal norm that the judiciary will be blamed for sundry reasons such as where there is failure or refusal of the political party to obey its own constitution and party guidelines in the conduct of primary election leading to loss of the case or where the failure of INEC as the electoral umpire to conduct free, fair and credible elections as required by the electoral laws led to annulment of the victory.
The situation is so bad that sometimes too, the courts are blamed for fatal procedural slips or blunders committed by lawyers either in improperly filing the pre-election cases or election petitions or poorly presenting evidence required to satisfy the burden of proving an otherwise good case.
Every party in court expects to win. Unfortunately, only one side will win in a judgment of a Court in any suit unlike the game of football where a league match may end in a draw.
In view of the foregoing, shorn of all legalese and legal technicalities, in simple terms, the implications of these two governorship judgments referred to earlier are that the Election Petition Tribunal upheld the victory of Governor Hope Uzodinma of APC as the duly elected Governor of Imo State in the stand alone governorship election which held on 11 November 2023.
In other words, the Election Petition Tribunal did not uphold or accept the separate contentions of the LP and her governorship candidate (Senator Achonu) or that of PDP and her governorship candidate (Senator Anyanwu) that any of one of them won the Imo governorship election.
With these latest judgments, APC’s victory in the 11 November 2023 gubernatorial election in Imo State has received judicial approval.
The further legal implication of this development is that, if LP and her candidate and or PDP and her candidate are dissatisfied with their respective judgments, they are constitutionally entitled to appeal to the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal has a total of sixty days and no more to hear and determine the appeal(s).
Thereafter, any party or parties not satisfied with the decision of the Court of Appeal is or are entitled to a further and final appeal to the Supreme Court. Governorship election petitions terminate in the Supreme Court which has a total of sixty days to entertain the appeal(s).
It is appropriate to note at this juncture that irrespective of how discredited the electoral process has painfully remained, and notwithstanding the disturbing waning public confidence in the judiciary, it is beyond argument that overtime, election petitions have served to reduce post-election violence and killings in Nigeria.
Instead of maiming and killing opponents or burning and looting properties, party candidates who are not declared winners by the INEC usually rush to court to file petitions for redress of perceived injustices from the Election Petition Tribunals. Election petitions keep the hopes of recovery of elusive electoral victory of unsuccessful candidates and their supporters alive. In some cases, petitioners have succeeded in obtaining victory and recovering their mandates via the judiciary.
There is no gainsaying the fact that with the recent Election Petition Tribunal judgment, the political tension in Imo State has dropped considerably. The dejure (rightful) winner of the governorship election is no longer in doubt except when and where otherwise decided by the appellate Courts with the Supreme Court having the final say some four clear months ahead.
No legal contest is small or minute as its outcome remains largely unpredictable.
In the same wise, no legal victory is a trifle as anything could go wrong. It is in this connection that Governor Uzodinma of APC deserves hearty congratulations on the all-important judicial validation of his mandate.
Congratulations is better than sorry.
For the LP and PDP candidates who did not succeed in their individual petitions before the Election Petition Tribunal, there is joy in participation. There is no harm in trying and there is no malice in seeking judicial redress by anyone who feels aggrieved. It is a constitutionally guaranteed right for any person who is aggrieved with the outcome of an election to present a petition before the Election Petition Tribunal instead of resort to self-help. Nigeria is a country governed by rule of law.
In a plethora or litany of decided cases which include the celebrated cases of CHIEF OJUKWU V. GOVERNOR OF LAGOS STATE (1986) 1 NWLR (PT. 18) 621 and OBEYA MEMORIAL SPECIALIST HOSPITAL V. AG FEDERATION & ANOR (1987) LPELR-2163(SC) (PP. 46 PARAS. C), the apex Supreme Court has consistently held that in the area where rule of law operates, the rule of self-help by force is abandoned. There is no room for the rule of self-help by force to operate.
The above cited judicial authorities validate the legal reality that presenting an election petition is a civilised way of ventilating while self-help or resort to post-election violence stands deprecated. Litigation is and remains “the final bus stop” in any electoral contest.
Apart from the notional joy in participation, the LP and PDP candidates deserve some congratulations too as they put up a good fight. Election petitions are sui generis (in a class of its own).
Being a highly technical petition, it is worthy of note that some of the petitions filed by some other political parties against the Governor and or his APC party were struck out in limine (on preliminary objections).
However, the petitions filed either by LP or PDP survived myriads of preliminary objections and scaled through to the rigorous process of adducing evidence and calling of witnesses till judgment stage. Litigation lawyers know that a lot of work and diligence went into those petitions.
Moving forward, it should be asked, beyond the outcomes of the judgments in the Imo governorship election petitions, what next?
It is gratifying to note that in his victory speech, Governor Uzodinma extended olive branch by calling on those who contested against him to join him in developing the State. This timely clarion call should not be taken lightly. Politics is essentially for service delivery. There should be no sore losers and the winner is enjoined to be magnanimous in victory.
It is the core thrust of this intervention that Imo State should leverage on the Governor’s call for inclusive governance to attain sustainable peace and political tranquility.
Therefore, Imo elders, traditional rulers, political and religious leaders, youths, men and women including friends of Imo State and stakeholders in Igbo land should quickly intervene at this stage to broker peace between all the gubernatorial candidates in the last election and the Governor of Imo State. Political resolution of disputes is not weakness.
Peace is not lack of courage. It is beyond doubt that Imo State is in dire need of total peace and reconciliation in order to usher in security of lives and prosperity as precursor to prosperity. Imo State leaders urgently need to sit down and talk- eye ball to eye ball.
An unexamined life is not worth living. A lot is not right with Imo politics. Okwu Imo State, aga ekwu ya ekwu. Further distracting the Governor with lawsuits about his mandate will not provide the requisite conducive environment for fruitful and frank deliberations.
There is no doubt that appeals by dissatisfied party candidates will grow the body of legal jurisprudence on election petitions, swell the remuneration of lawyers in the matters and massage the putative egos of incurable optimists among other things but the law courts are not averse to amicable resolution or settlement of disputes. By the provisions of section 6 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, the judiciary is consecrated to deliver judgment according to law but that may not be justice. Jurisprudentially speaking, judgment is possible without justice. Peaceful resolution of these matters will engender justice for all concerned.
Much as the LP and PDP candidates have not exhausted all the opportunities of appeal available to them under the law at this stage, it is beyond argument that maintaining legal suits against the Governor’s mandate serve as distractions and millstone to rapid transformational development in Imo State. It is in the overall best interest of Imo State that litigations concerning the last governorship election should end. Other State Governors across the country have settled down to work for their people although it is not lost on us that Imo State is on off cycle governorship election calendar.
Pointedly, the LP and PDP governorship candidates are entreated to seriously consider dropping any further legal contestations of the Imo governorship election. The party candidates and indeed party members from Imo State are firstly Imolites before becoming members of their various parties. All concerned must know that no price is too big to pay and no sacrifice is too monumental to make to have Imo State back on track. Tomorrow is another day.
A new normal is possible!
🖋️
Prof Obiaraeri, N.O