On Wednesday, December 13, a fresh impetus was thrown into the mix of the controversy that has already bogged down Anambra Central senatorial seat since 2015. In March 2015, the election into that seat was already a contentious battle as many aspirants filed out for the bid.
While three main political parties were in contest including the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), the race was all the more interesting at the front of the PDP, where three candidates were thrown up as at the time the primaries were held in 2014. There was Senator Uche Ekwunife, who was eventually sworn in and lasted only six months on the seat, there was also Dr Obiora Okonkwo and then Senator Annie Okonkwo all claiming to have won the primaries of the PDP. The party, however, went ahead to field Ekwunife in the polls, leaving Obiora Okonkwo to continue a battle to validate his victory at the primaries in the courts.
While Okonkwo continued in the courts to secure the mandate to fly the PDP flag, the election held, the party was declared the winner and Ekwunife were sworn in as Senator in Abuja.
But other contestants in the race included APGA’s Victor Umeh and Dr Chris Ngige of the APC did not also allow the battle to lie low. They took up the declared victory of the PDP at the Election Petitions Tribunal and the Court of Appeal, which serves as the court of final instance in matters of senatorial election. One of the matters led to the removal of Ekwunife as a candidate of the PDP and her ouster from the Senate. Since her removal from the chamber, the seat has, however, remained vacant.
The factors that informed that were multifaceted and unique to Anambra. First, Ngige, who contested on the platform of the APC got nominated as Minister of the Federal Republic. And then, Ekwunife defected to the APC. With her removal from the Senate based upon her election as a PDP Senator, she has left a deep gap to be filled in that contest.
The battle went on and on, taking dramatic twists in the last two years. At a stage, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) moved to conduct a rerun election. It announced that the PDP would not field a candidate based on the removal of Ekwunife. The APC moved to replace Ngige with Mr Sharon Ikeazor and all appeared set for the polls. The PDP also made moves to name former Governor Peter Obi as a candidate for the rerun election. But INEC was advised to take judicial notice of the pre-election suit instituted by Okonkwo, whose determination could have bearing on the final determination of that seat. The electoral commission then suspended plans to hold the rerun election until a later date.
On November 23, the commission announced after its 41st ordinary meeting that it had fixed January 13, 2018, for the conduct of Anambra Central senatorial seat rerun election. The commission based its action on a ruling of the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, which granted an order on it to conduct the election within 90 days.
Court Of Appeal Twist
The ruling of the Court of Appeal in Abuja threw frenzy into the works as regards the senatorial seat, which has been vacant in the last two years. APGA, which was priding itself as the sole party qualified to contest the election jumped into the ring with shouts of victory. Its candidate, Victor Umeh declared this development a victory for democracy and the rule of law. He was hopeful that INEC would shut out the PDP and the APC based on the withdrawal of their candidates. Ngige having been named a Minister and the court having asked Ekwunife as a candidate of the PDP. The APGA was on a bounce but the PDP and Okonkwo also immediately reacted.
The party promptly filed cases in the Supreme Court, challenging the order of the Court of Appeal and also declaring that its candidate, Obiora Okonkwo, be allowed to partake in the planned election if it must hold.
The Dikeora Campaign Organisation, the campaign organisation of Dr, Obiora Okonkwo said in a statement that while it welcomes the judgement of Appeal Court, INEC must take due notice of Obiora’s pre-election matter which is pending at the Federal High Court and also a notice he already filed at the Supreme Court seeking to be allowed to partake in the rerun if it must hold.
In the statement titled: “Re: Appeal Court Orders Re-run Election In Anambra Central,” the organisation indicated thus: “Our attention has been drawn to the ruling of a Court of Appeal which deliberated in Victor Umeh versus Peter Obi over the vacant Anambra Central Senatorial Seat in which the Court gave Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) 90 days to conduct a re-run election for the senatorial district.
“The judgment is welcome. However, this judgment was given without consideration to an outstanding pre-election matter, also in the Court of Appeal Abuja, in which Dr Obiora Okonkwo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is seeking a declaration that he is a rightful candidate of the party and ought to be sworn-in as Senator representing the zone.
“In his appeal, Okonkwo averred that he rightfully, and convincingly, won the PDP primary election.
“He also contests that by virtue of a Court of Appeal decisive judgment that Honourable Uche Ekwunife should not have been fielded as a candidate for PDP, and therefore invalidated her purported election, that he becomes the rightful candidate that should be declared as the senator representing Anambra Central at the Senate.
“In his appeal, which judgment is expected in December, Okonkwo argued that a re-run election, as now ordered by another panel of judges of the court, is unnecessary since his pre-election matter is yet to be determined.
“Recall that Honourable Ekwunife was removed from the Senate by the Court of Appeal in Enugu on the grounds that she was wrongly nominated by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and as such, ought not to have been fielded in the 2015 election.
“Following the judgment, the PDP recognised Dr Okonkwo as its properly nominated candidate for the Anambra Central senatorial election.
“Consequent upon that judgment, Dr Okonkwo approached the courts seeking an order upholding his nomination as rightful PDP candidate for the district.
“He is also asking a declaration by the Court of Appeal that as the rightful candidate of the party, he ought to be sworn-in as Senator representing Anambra Central on an argument that PDP actually won the election.
“By virtue of the pending suit, the court-ordered re-run election will, therefore, be an action nullifying the electoral will of people of the district who voted massively for Dr Okonkwo as votes cast in the election are still valid and not invalidated by any court.”
The Obiora Victory
On Wednesday, December 13, 2017, the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja gave Obiora Okonkwo victory in the pre-election matter before it. The court declared that the businessman was the validly nominated candidate of the PDP for the March 2015 senatorial election in the zone and ordered that INEC must issue him the certificate of return, while the Senate President is to swear him in as the Senator representing Anambra Central Senatorial District of Anambra State.
Justice John Tsoho, who presided over the court in the case brought before him by Okonkwo against the PDP and three others, held that the plaintiff was validly nominated by the PDP in its primary election held on December 7, 2014, for the purpose of electing the party’s candidate for the Senatorial District.
The judge ordered that the Certificate of Return, earlier issued to another aspirant, Mrs Uche Ekwunife be withdrawn and that a fresh one is issued to Okonkwo by the INEC. The judgment agreed with counsel to the plaintiff, Chief Sebastine Hon (SAN) that, in view of the withdrawal of all the respondents from the matter, the court was at liberty under the law to enter judgment in favour of Okonkwo.
According to the Judge, with the withdrawal of the respondents and their consent to submit to judgment, the plaintiff (Okonkwo) has emerged as the lawful candidate of PDP in the March 28, 2015, National Assembly election for the Anambra Central Senatorial District.
A foundation for the endless controversy had been laid when the Court of Appeal, Enugu Division, in 2015, voided Ekwunife’s election for not being, “the product of a valid primary and was therefore not duly and legitimately nominated.”
More drama as Umeh insists on January 2018 rerun
While reacting to the ruling of the Federal High Court judgement which gave Obiora Okonkwo victory as the Senator representing Anambra Central Senatorial District, Chief Umeh announced that nothing will stop the planned January 13, 2018, election.
Umeh said: “INEC would take a decision based on the superior judgement on record on the matter. INEC has no right to choose a High Court order against a Court of Appeal order that is subsisting. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria provided for a hierarchy of courts – Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and High Court. And when Court of Appeal renders a decision, all the authorities and persons and all courts of subordinate jurisdiction will abide by it. INEC cannot choose between Court of Appeal order and high court order. Two of them don’t have the same level of authority in our jurisprudence. A high court is a high court. The decision of the Court of Appeal comes before that of high courts.”
He stated that the Federal High Court Order in favour of Okonkwo was standing on nothing: “The Federal High Court judgement did not make any reference to the Court of Appeal judgement that nullified the election. The High Court did not make any reference to the Court of Appeal judgement delivered on 20th November that ordered INEC to conduct the rerun election within 90 days. It did not say INEC should ignore those Court of Appeal decisions. What it simply said was that it delivered a judgement on who was the candidate of PDP between Ekwunife and Obiora Okonkwo. That was the judgement and he (Justice Tsoho) proceeded to make fallacious orders that Obiora Okonkwo should be sworn in. Sworn in on the basis of which election? An election that has been nullified? If the election had not been nullified, and he comes to the conclusion that Okonkwo was the rightful candidate of PDP, yes, he can order that Okonkwo should be sworn in.
“But in the present case, the election in question has been destroyed by the Court of Appeal judgement delivered on December 7, 2015, which nullified the election. And that is why the seat has been vacant till date. So, Obiora Okonkwo is not going there to replace anybody because there is nobody there. The election has been voided by the Court of Appeal which is the final court vested with the authority to adjudicate over National Assembly matters. And that was what the Supreme Court judges told Uche Ekwunife on 10th of February 2017. They told her that they don’t have any authority to tamper with the judgement of the Court of Appeal, that the judgement is final. So, the election remains nullified forever. A high court cannot pretend that it is treating a pre-election matter and fail to recognize the fact that nobody can be the winner of a nullified election. There is nothing for Okonkwo to claim because the election does not exist anymore. It has been invalidated.”
Pressure mounts on INEC
Counsel to Dr Okonwko, Sebastine Hon, (SAN) wasted no time in firing letters to INEC to validate his client’s victory in the event of the ruling of the Federal High Court. In two separate letters dated December 14, and December 19, 2017, the counsel told INEC of the ruling of the court and the need to immediately issue a certificate of return to Okonkwo. While his letter of December 14 informed INEC of the judgement, that of December 19 contained Certified True Copies (CTCs) of the judgement to enable INEC act appropriately.
Also, a coalition to candidates who partook in the Anambra Central Senatorial election in March 2015 expressed their support for the judgement of the Federal High Court as they declared that the development would put an end to the endless saga around the senatorial seat.
The coalition, in a statement in Abuja, said that it was demeaning that the senatorial zone remains the only one unrepresented in the Nigerian Red chamber since 2015.
In a statement by the coalition of political parties led by Chief Akudo Ezeakudo Chikwendu and Comrade Peter Okala, the group declared that the judgement of the Federal High Court “signalled the resolution to a long drawn battle that had denied Anambra Central people of quality representation at the Senate.”
The coalition also said that the senatorial zone had suffered deprivation due to the long-standing pre-election dispute which, according to them “by the grace of God, has now been resolved.”
It said that “it was the time that we allow the law to rule our dealings irrespective of how emotionally attached we are to issues.”
The coalition said further: “The judgment of the Federal High Court was straight and unambiguous. We welcome it and call on INEC not to cause further delay in the process of actualising the judgment of the court. We believe the judgment will begin a healing process that will enable all of us in Anambra Central to rebuild and plan for 2019. We are just a few more months away from electioneering for 2019 and therefore we believe that swearing Dr Okonkwo in as this time will enable all of us to refocus and being early to plan for 2019.”
The coalition urged INEC to recall its action in issuing Uche Ogar with a Certificate of Return when the court so ordered in a pre-election matter against Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, adding that a consequence of Justice Tsoho’s judgment is that PDP now has a candidate duly nominated for the 2015 election.
The back and forth over Anambra Central senatorial seat has for now put INEC on the spot and only a quick pronouncement by the commission on the part of the rule of law would showcase it as the impartial arbiter it was created to be.
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