The last has not been heard about the controversial August 7th,2010 Local Government Council election in Imo State. The latest news is that the suit has now moved to the Court of Appeal, Owerri for adjudication. Investigation shows that but for the State Government which has yet to file its brief, the Court of Appeal would have since slated the suit for hearing. In order to carry everybody along, there is a need to do a brief summation of the genesis of the suit
What happened was that the then Governor, Chief Ikedi Ohakim, through the Imo State Independent Electoral Commission(ISIEC) conducted a controversial Local Government Election on the 7th day of August, 2010.The result was released the next day, Sunday, 8th, while the winners were sworn into office in very early on Monday, 9th August, 2010. Furthermore, all the 27 Chairmen who were said to have won the election in their various LGAs were all members of Peoples Democratic Party(PDP). It was against this background that the poll caused panic and bad blood among the various sections of the political class and even the electorate in the state.
Dissatisfied with the result released by the ISIEC, a group called “The Opposing Candidates of August 7, 2010 LG Election” went to court to contest the validity of the LG election of August 7th, 2010.In a judgment of The Imo State High Court sitting at Owerri and presided over by Hon. Justice I.O.Agugua and delivered on the 26th day of September, 2012, he dismissed the suit NO. HOW/434/2011 as an abuse of court process and that the suit was wrongly commenced by originating summons .He awarded a cost of Ten thousand Naira(10000.00) to each of the defendants against the Claimants. In that suit, the Claimants include Reverend Chris Ngozi Ejealor and four others who were representing the Opposition Candidates i.e. the group that dragged ISIEC to court. The Respondents include the The Executive Governor of Imo State, The ISIEC, and the then Chairmen of the 27 LGAs in Imo State- all of who were and are still members of the People’s Democratic Party(PDP).
Dissatisfied with ruling of the Owerri High Court, the Rev. Ngozi Ejealor –led group who are now the appellants, has appealed to the Court of Appeal ,Owerri for intervention on this controversial issue.
A perusal of the Appellant’s Brief as filed by their counsel shows that major plank of the Claimants is anchored on a number of factors of which the most significant is the issue of the cavalier manner in which the injunction instituted by Hon Justice Goddy Anunihu was handled. According to , the Counsel of the Appellants, Barrister Fidelis Onyebuenyi………… of the …….Law Chamber, the Owerri High Court presided over by Hon Justice Goddy Anunihu had on the 11/5/2010 restrained the P.D.P from organizing, conducting, holding or causing to be organized, conduct or hold any Party Primaries at any level of the party in Imo State for the purposes of electing or selecting the candidates the candidates of P.D.D for the Local Government Election in Imo State on the 12/5/2010 or any other day thereafter until the determination of the interlocutory injunction. And on the 30/07/2010 ,the said learned trial judge reaffirmed the order he made on the 11/5/2010 and went further to declare any exercise in violation of the said order as nullity.
Furthermore the Appellants said “that when the party(P.D.P violated the subsisting order of the court, action was taken in the wrong tribunal in LGET/OW/3/10 and LGET/OW/52/2010 by different parties and the petitions were struck out on the grounds of jurisdiction. The Appellants who were Claimants in the Lower Court brought an action by way of originating summons in respect of the action of P.D.P violating the order of HON Justice Anunihu in HOW/545/2009.
In his submission during the hearing, the Counsel to the Respondents raised the issue of jurisdiction on the grounds of incompetent process, lack of Locus Standi and abuse of court process. In his judgment, the Learned Trial Judge, HON Justice I.O.Agugua, dismissed the case on the grounds of abuse of court’s process as the issues were earlier determined in the previous matters and above all that the Originating Summons was inappropriate to commence the matter
Consequent upon the reasons adduced by the Learned Judge of the Lower Court, for dismissing the suit, Barrister Onyebuenyi has raised a number of issues for determination by the Court of Appeal, Owerri.The issues for determination include (1)Whether a suit can be dismissed because it was commenced by originating summons instead of Writ of summons.
(2)Whether the action was to interpret the Order of HON Justice Goddy Anunihu or to declare the exercise in violation of same as a nullity
(3)Whether the appellants were estopped from relitigating the issues that were not heard and determined by a court or tribunal of competent jurisdiction.
(4) Whether it is in the interest of the public that an order of the court should be obeyed and a party affected be allowed to contest the violation of the Order of Court.
In his brief of argument, Barrister Onyebuenyi frontloaded crack legal citations in regard to each of the “Issues for Determination” in a bid to validate and lend credence to his line of argument.
On the strength of the points raised above, it is safe to say that everything is set for the legal gymnastics which will take place in the Court of Appeal in order to put an end to this controversial and contentious issue which has raged since 2009.All eyes are now targeted at the Imo State Government whose own brief on the suit is the only factor that is presently keeping the suit in abeyance. It is pertinent to emphasize that both the Executive Governor of Imo State and The Imo State Independent Electoral Commission(ISIEC) are both parties to the suit. In the Court of Appeal suit, the Governor of Imo State, the ISIEC AND THE 27 Chairmen of the LGAs are the respondents while the Appellants include REV. Ngozi Akamdiocha and 4 others representing the opposition Councilors who are contesting the legality of the LG Election of AUGUST 7th, 2010.
Although the matter of tenure is a matter that has not been finally put to rest. The present suit in the Court of Appeal is not even about tenure but rather, the Appellants are asking the court to declare the August 7, 2010 Election illegal, null and void and of no effect.
The decision of the Court of Appeal on this issue will go a long way to strengthen political jurisprudence in the Local Government sector. It will also throw more light in some recondite areas of the law with special emphasis on the Local Government Councils. If the Court of Appeal, Owerri upholds the election as legal , then the Council Chairmen will celebrate their victory and perhaps, push further to ascertain if they were elected for two or three years. They will also be entitled to payment of arrears. If, however, the Court of Appeal declares the election illegal, null and void, the Chairmen will lose everything. If or when this happens, it will remind us of the famous dictum of Lord Denning who in Macfoy Vs United African Company Ltd(1963) held that :”If an act is void, there is in law a nullity. It is not only bad but incurably bad. There is no need for an order of Court to set it aside. It is automatically null and void without much ado, though it is sometimes convenient to have the court declare it to be so. And every proceeding which is founded on it is also bad and incurably bad. You cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stay there. It will collapse”.
In conclusion , I wish to state that although I had written severally on this issue in the past , I have on this occasion refrained from injecting my own opinion since the matter is in court. It is part of the ethics of Journalism that issues in court should not be discussed in the media in order to avert the wrath of Judicial officers who may charge you for breaching the Law of Contempt of court. What I am doing now is to provide space to report an issue of public interest. Nonetheless, I may merely advise the parties to decide whether the issue should be settled out of court or whether the court should handle the matter decisively. However, for the Appellants, he who is down needs fear no fall, since things can only get better. On the side of the Respondents i.e. the 27 LGA Chairmen, it’s a time that calls for sober reflection. On the part of the State Governor, there is a need for the various submissions and Briefs to be filed soon so that the Court of Appeal can process this matter with business-like promptitude.
John Mgbe
Johnmgbe@yahoo.com
