For those who have forgotten the distasteful manipulation that happened in Imo State, it bears recapping here. Having been in power for eight years, the state PDP felt that the state belongs to it and therefore its members were on each otherʼs throat to get anointed as the partyʼs flagbearer in the 2007 governorship elections. Many of them that could not stand the deadly heat of the PDP primaries relocated to the other parties and positioned themselves for the candidacy of these respective parties in the run up to the infamously rigged process. Martin Agbaso went to APGA and got elected as the candidate of the party. Every Imo man knows that APGA is the most popular party in Imo State and indeed the south east but was practically emasculated by the ruling PDP, especially after the shocking misrepresented routing it gave the PDP in the south east in 2003. Given that APGA is a mass-oriented party, with no much presence of election riggers and money bags, it was obvious that what was needed in every state is one strong candidate that will protect and guard the partyʼs votes from the thieving hands of the PDP. This was the formular that gave Anambra to APGA in 2003.

So as the race in the Imo PDP got deadlier and APGA was enjoying a robust campaign enroute the disappointing 2007 polls, several Imo people and indeed all other Nigerians predicted that APGA would clinch Imo State in 2007. Even This Day gave the state to APGA in its opinion polls prior to the elections.. When no one wanted to yield to the other amongst the PDP candidates, the party decided to substitute the choice of its members with the choice of the cabal that ruled the party then. This was the magic that saw a Charles Ugwu that barely got 20 votes in the PDP primary being chosen to flag the partyʼs flag ahead of Ararume that got over 2,000 votes in the said primary. When Ararume went to court and got the court to decide in his favour against the partyʼs choice of Ugwu, the then president, Olusegun Obasanjo and the partyʼs hierarchy had to personally storm Owerri and declared that even as they acknowledge the victory of Ararume at their primaries, the PDP would rather give up Imo State than have Ararume as their flag bearer.

Coming few days to the polls, this cleared the last hurdle for Agbaso who was riding on the coaster of APGAʼs grassroots command of Igbo politics. It was under this atmosphere that the April 14, 2007 was held and it was a landslide for Agbaso and the various APGA candidates for state assembly seats all over Imo State. But alas, what followed was vintage Iwu and Obasanjo magic as the governorship election was cancelled on the flimsy excuse that it was marred by violence. But what will shock Nigerians was the fact that the same INEC went ahead to release the state assembly election results where the victorious APGA candidates the Imo people voted were substituted completely by PDP candidates. One resounding issue here that gave Iwu and his co-conspirators away was that the same governorship election that was allegedly marred by violence was conducted in the same ballot box as the state assembly elections that were not marred by violence and which were awarded to the PDP!

The curious cancellation of the Imo governorship election, which Agbaso and APGA won was to lead to the repeat polls which was awarded to Iwuʼs nominee, Ikedi Ohakim, although by then, the courts have ordered the inclusion of Ararume in the ballots and he had been completely deserted by the state PDP, on prompting from the national body. For this, the out-going Udenwa government got all its principal officers back to government as either commissioners, advisers, assistants, etc while the PPA that was supposed to have won Imo remains at the pitiable fringe of affairs..

Since the untidy manipulation of the Imo State election and the visitation of what could pass as an Iwu Dynasty on Imo State and the unfurling of a dubious and propaganda-driven government that has failed in all spheres of governance, the people have watched helplessly as usurpers chase away the real winner of the mandate of the people. For Iwu, he had not stopped at inventing all known tricks to ensure APGA is decapitated so as to ensure the continuity of the government he crudely foisted on Imo State and which had recruited every member of his family into the government of the state. This is the reason why Iwu is engaged in a very smelly effort to divide and kill APGA by patronizing a one-man faction of the party. Graciously, the Federal High Court has risen to stop this annoying perfidy and has reaffirmed the authenticity of the Victor Umeh leadership in APGA. Soon after this, the Court of Appeal has waded into the Imo tussle in a move that will take Imo State away from the fraud empire Maurice Iwu has labored to build and equip in Imo and hand the state back to the Imo people. This remains a laudable effort by the countryʼs judiciary to intervene and save the slide into degeneracy, which the PDP and Iwuʼs INEC organized in 2007.

For the Appeal Court and possibly the Supreme Court, the issue is not about disputations about the freeness and fairness of the April 28 repeat polls in Imo State but the reason why a winner in the April 14 authentic polls has to be substituted with a nominee of just some few people. The issue remains that in an election where one part was upheld, there is no reason for a repeat poll. The issue is that if the governorship election in Imo on April 14 2007 was marred by violence, as manufactured and claimed by Iwu, it would be morally, legally and ethically wrong to uphold the state assembly elections held in the very same ballot with the governorship election. The issue was that there was no known phenomenal violence in Imo State on April 14 2007 that targeted the state governorship. What happened was the working of the dirty and corrupt minds of Maurice Iwu, Obasanjo and Udenwa, which culminated on the voiding of the free electoral choices of Imo people on flimsy grounds.

The issue is that most Imo people refused to vote or were never allowed to vote in the so-called repeat polls because there was no programme for elections on April 28 but the coronation of an Aso Rock-ordained nominee to Imo governorship. Again, most Imo people felt they have voted in an authentic election on April 14 and therefore felt there was no need for a repeat poll for an election that was conclusive and not threatened by any defect but the narrow interests of a few people. The issue is about the inviolable nature of the votes of the people of not only Imo State but also those of Nigerians..

Above all however, the Appeal Court needs to do justice to all Nigerians and a Martin Agbaso and an APGA are Nigerians who were brazenly cheated to pave way for the interests of just a few people. The courts must do justice to them. The Appeal Court should use the Agbaso case to tell those that lord it over Nigerians that it is not for them to employ their dark and irascible whims to decide to substitute the interests of the generality of the people with that of a few. At a time when developments from advanced societies like the United States and even from our next door neighbors like Ghana have succeeded to inflict shame on our conduct here in Nigeria, the Appeal Court have enough ground to return the stolen mandate of Agbaso and APGA in Imo State and set a fresh and encouraging precedence in electoral conducts in Nigeria. At a time every Nigerian; from the president to the street hawker has come forward to express the desire to get things right here in Nigeria, the Appeal Court would be doing a great service to the mangled electoral system supervised by Iwu in 2007 if it affirms that the electoral wishes of Imo people on April 14^th 2007 must be returned to Imo people. The Appeal Court would serve good notice to in-coming electoral umpires that it is not for them to elevate their selfish and greedy interests above the well-expressed democratic choices of the people. This remains central to the realization of a free and fair electoral system in Nigeria. So Imo beckons and the Appeal Court must seize this opportunity to re-enact another Oshiomole-like phenomenal judgment to lift the spirits of Nigerians from the doldrums of April 2007.

Stephen Nwahiri.

Lagos Nigeria

Robot  # 1 | 16.12.2008 07:44

For the people of Imo State, it is a heartening development that the President of the Appeal Court, Justice Abdulahi has directed the suspension of the on-going governorship tussle between Governor Ikedi Ohakim of the PPA and Senator Ifeanyi Ararume of the PDP at the Appeal Tribunal in Port Harcourt until the case instituted by Martin Agbaso of APGA against the annulement of the April 14, 2007 election in Imo State is disposed of. For the puppeteers that now occupy the government house Owerri and for the camp of Ararume, this came as a rude awakening that it is not yet over. For the common man, it introduces a ray of hope that justice is still possible after the rare manipulation of the Imo Governorship election last year. For many Imo State indigenes, the decision means that the court has seen the need to properly adjudicate in one of the darkest spots of the dirty deeds the Maurice Iwu led INEC did in April 2007, in the name of conducting elections. If the judiciary c...Read the full article.

akuluouno  # 2 | 16.12.2008 08:05

My Dear Brother, The story of electoral malpractice and maladminsitration in Nigeria is like a tale out of the biblical book of Lamentations:cry::cry: Yet Iwu is being canonised, deified and apotheosized by people of his ilk. I am still amazed at the capacity of the Nigerian for dishonour, mischief and wuruwuru in the highest and most sacred places, yet they find it prudent to mouth platitudes on Thailand, Ghana and Obama before them. As I have said in another thread, the only light at the end of the tunnel is that of the bonfire for the barbecue of my xmas goat and I wish both Agbaso, APGA, the Court of Appeal and all well meaning Nigerians and Villagers alike a happy xmas in advance:kiss: I also hpe that the law takes its course in Imo State elections meaning that in lections in Nigeria, it is no longer the voters that matter but the courts that have the final say. No wonder the electoral reform committee recommended special election courts as the final umpire for future elections. Then why bother to have a voters card and go through the rigours of queuing to vote as the do like say in Ghana

Odinaka  # 3 | 16.12.2008 09:41

This is one of the reasons the clown called Maurice Iwu should not be allowed to rest (did someone say he's been vindicated?). That someone of his age and status perpetuated such a fraud is an abomination, a sacrilege. He deserves to be jailed for the rest of his life. I did inform a friend of mine those days that Agbaso should not go for the repeat election, but his advisers thought otherwise (wonder what qualifies some to be advisers). Whatever be the outcome, Iwu (prof of Ebola virus) will remain a stinking old man.

Iyke  # 4 | 16.12.2008 20:18

May be the violence happened immediately a voter drops a ballot for the house of Assembly and bang! like lightining the violence snatches his or her gubenitorial ballot.! lol. Maurice iwu never failed in amazing us. Imo elections really exposed him. Well we still keep our fingers crossed and watch the drama as it unfolds. what is the appeal court up to?