The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has warned that the panel set up
to review the Court of Appeal
judgment on the Ekiti governorship election can only achieve one aim
– to discredit the judiciary and
destabilize the polity.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Monday by its National Publicity
Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the
party therefore called on all believers in the rule of law over the
rule of the jungle to intervene to stop what has
now become a circus show, simply because some honest and courageous
judges dared to rule against the
almighty PDP.
It recalled that on the basis of a petition by the disgraced
usurper-governor of Ekiti, Mr. Segun Oni, the NJC
had set up a panel of enquiry that absolved then President of the
Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami, of any
wrongdoing.
”The questions then are: What do those who instigated the set up of
the review panel on the Ekiti judgement want
to achieve? Is there a precedent in this regard? Does it mean that
once a litigant is dissatisfied with any judgement, even
at the Supreme Court, he can get such a ruling to be reviewed once he
has the ‘right’ connections? At the time the
judgement was given, was the Court of Appeal not the final court in
the governorship election petition? And what will
the new panel say that the NJC has not said?” ACN queried.
The party said it is particularly worried that while Oni may be the
face of this unprecedented assault on the judiciary, he
is a mere puppet in a bigger circus show, and the puppeteers are the
PDP and the federal government it controls.
”Last week, we had a reason to warn against what seems to be a
calculated attempt to destroy the judiciary, an institution
that has been built over the years, just because the PDP lost two
governorship seats in Ekiti and Osun. We are compelled to
issue the same warning now over the panel set up to review the Court
of Appeal judgment in Ekiti.
”The fact that the PDP lost the governorship in two states where it
was found to have stolen the people’s mandate is not a
license for the party and its powerful backers to bring down the roof
and to seek to destroy the careers of forthright judges.
”Honestly, we at the ACN are not really bothered about Oni, who has
been behaving like a small boy whose toy was
taken from him (even such a boy is better than Oni because after he
must have cried, he will move on). But our real concern
are Oni’s masters, his puppeteers who are hell bent on using him to
humiliate judges who would not do their bidding, and
then destroy the judiciary in the process. This is why we are crying
out now,” ACN said.
The party said Nigeria is bigger than any individual or political
party, and must not be destroyed just so that an out-of-control
but ‘well-connected’ party can keep a stolen mandate.
Alhaji Lai Mohammed
National Publicity Secretary
Action Congress of Nigeria
Lagos, Feb. 27th 2012
