Sagay seeks review of Supreme Court verdicts on Zamfara, Rivers -

Sagay seeks review of Supreme Court verdicts on Zamfara, Rivers

Eminent Professor of Law Itse Sagay (SAN) has urged the All Progressives Congress (APC) legal team to apply to the Supreme Court for a review of its judgments on Zamfara and Rivers States.

In Rivers, the APC was excluded from fielding candidates during the general elections following a Supreme Court judgment.

In the case of Zamfara, the Supreme Court on April 24 nullified APC’s victory in the election and transferred it to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) due to alleged irregularities in APC’s primaries.

To Sagay, the verdicts are a travesty of justice.

He said in a statement: “The Zamfara and Rivers State judgments are a national tragedy. We should not allow our legal system to throw up such unimaginable injustice.

“This major judicial disenfranchisement of the Zamfara and Rivers electorate should be reversed. I advise the APC legal team to apply for a review of the two judgments.

“Their Lordships ought to be given an opportunity to reverse this unprecedented tragedy.

“The prefix ‘Justice’ preceding he names of Supreme Court and Court of Appeal Judges is significant, for it prescribes what they stand for and what they represent: Justice!”

Sagay pointed out that in the governorship election in Zamfara, the APC candidate scored well over 500,000 votes whilst the PDP candidate scored just over 100,000 votes.

He noted the APC won all three Senate seats in the state, seven House of Representative seats and 24 State House of Assembly seats.

The statement reads in part: “By this judgment, the landslide APC victories in the governorship, Senate, House of Representative and State House of Assembly are transferred to the PDP.

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“If the APC primaries were defective, should the electorate be deprived of their democratic and Constitutional rights to vote? Is the electorate to be punished for the transgressions of party officials?

“Should the Judiciary replace the electorate’s decision and install losers in office? Could the Judiciary not have drawn on the deep recesses of its intellectual capacity, authority and its inexorable commitment to justice, to prevent this undemocratic calamity?

“Can the APC officials not be punished, for their lapses without denying the electorate their democratic rights? Should the Judiciary take over the electoral rights of the electorate? Is this not a clear case of technical law completely overthrowing justice?

“Have the members of the Supreme Court not achieved a level of creativity and authority to provide a solution without burying democracy and taking over from the registered voters as the judicial electorate?

“If this judgment had been an international one, it could have been described as ‘shocking the conscience of humanity’. In this case, it shocks the conscience of Nigerian humanity.”

Citing several authorities, Sagay said the Supreme Court is specially endowed with the power and authority to do justice and to ignore law when it is technical and would create injustice, and to avoid at all cost a mechanical approach to the interpretation of the law.

“Now, has justice been served in Rivers and Zamfara states? No! In one case innocent electorate in their hundreds of thousands were prevented from voting for their party by judicial order.

“In Zamfara, where voting took place, the verdict of the electorate was taken away from the victorious party and awarded by the Judiciary to the woeful losers.

See also Rochas Okorocha, Senator representing Imo West has warned the State Governor, Emeka Ihedioha to stop harassing his wife and children. Okorocha, who is the immediate past governor of the state said harassing his wife and children by the Ihedioha-led state government was unacceptable. The lawmaker’s warning was contained in a statement signed by his Special Adviser on media, Sam Onwuemedo. He challenged the governor to take charge as the leader of the State and halt the incessant harassment and abuse of his wife and children by his senior appointees. The statement reads: TThugs believed to be working for the secretary to the State Government, Chief Onyeaguocha invaded a mechanic workshop around the Orji flyover and took away a vehicle undergoing repair and owned by the daughter of the former governor, Uloma Nwosu nee Okorocha. “Even when she later sent her staff with the particulars of the vehicle they took away, to show that the vehicle does not belong to the State Government and to show that she bought the vehicle long time ago, they threatened to beat her and detain her and never cared to look at the particulars of the vehicle. “If Ihedioha’s government wanted anything from any of the former governor’s children or wife they could do so through the Police or DSS in the State. Invading their houses or impounding their private vehicles even from the mechanics for any reason, is barbaric and should be frowned at.’ “We want to make this appeal and ask Governor Emeka Ihedioha to take charge as the governor of the State and halt the incessant harassment and abuse of the wife and children of the former governor of the State, Owelle Rochas Okorocha by his senior appointees and their foot soldiers. Specifically, Governor Ihedioha should call Uche Onyeaguocha and his thugs to order and stop them from their harassment and abuse of the wife and children of the former governor. “Chief Ihedioha should not create an ugly history or set a very bad precedence as the first governor of the State who took delight in harassing the children and wife of the man he succeeded as governor. “Chief Ikedi Ohakim never harassed or abused the children and wife of Achike Udenwa he succeeded as governor. Owelle Rochas Okorocha for one day, never harassed or abused the wife and children of Chief Ohakim who he succeeded also as governor. Ihedioha should follow those examples. “His appointees have been harassing and castigating the children and wife of the former governor even at public functions and in the media. This is not good for the Office of governor. They can criticize or malign Rochas Okorocha on any issue which they have been doing, but to begin to harass the children and wife, is unacceptable to us and indeed, to all decent men and women in the society. ” Thugs believed to be working for the secretary to the State Government, Chief Onyeaguocha invaded a mechanic workshop around the Orji flyover and took away a vehicle undergoing repair and owned by the daughter of the former governor, Uloma Nwosu nee Okorocha. ” Even when she later sent her staff with the particulars of the vehicle they took away, to show that the vehicle does not belong to the State Government and to show that she bought the vehicle long time ago, they threatened to beat her and detain her and never cared to look at the particulars of the vehicle. If Ihedioha’s government wanted anything from any of the former governor’s children or wife they could do so through the Police or DSS in the State. Invading their houses or impounding their private vehicles even from the mechanics for any reason, is barbaric and should be frowned at. “It is also important to remind those who have got appointments for chewing election result sheets that no human being has the monopoly of thuggery or lawlessness and the most dangerous situation could arise when people are pushed to the wall. It also gives the wrong impression that those who want to be Secretary to the Government of the State should only need to tear or chew election result sheets. Okorocha’s wife and children never committed any crime by remaining in the State after he had left as governor, when the children and wives of those before him are all at overseas. “They are here because they believe in the State and Owelle has an addiction for the good of the State. Finally, people should not see Rochas Okorocha’s penchant for peace and tolerance as weakness. A word should be enough for the wise.”

“In the next four years, Zamfara State will be governed by a party and politicians rejected by the electorate. This indeed shocks the conscience of Nigerian humanity.”

He also referred to Section 140(1) – (3) of the Electoral Act, which prohibits any court from declaring a loser of an election elected even if the person with the highest votes was not validly elected.

“I am not interested in the provisions of the Electoral Act 2010. I am only deeply concerned and interested in the fundamental and peremptory principle of Justice.

“No Judge should announce his judgment until he is satisfied that Justice has been served, no matter how strong the pull of mechanical and technical law,” Sagay added. Copied.

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Sagay seeks review of Supreme Court verdicts on Zamfara, Rivers

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