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By ThisDay Newspaper: 15:3:06 by By Paul Ohia in Lagos and Oke Epia in Enugu, 03.15.2006:Forwarded by Phil Tam-Al AlaliboThe Court of Appeal sitting in
Enugu today quashed Governor Chris Ngige's election under the platform
of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and declared Peter Obi o...Read the full article.

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Finally, justice comes the way of Obi. There is hope for Nigeria with this ruling and kudos to the judge for ruling on the side of truth. Thank God.

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Congratulations Peter Obi but your victory has now left us with more questions than answers.

If APGA won the gubernatorial election in Anambra, it begs the question of who won the Presidential election there? Can this state really be a PDP state as we have been led to believe all along? What does this tell us about the other PDP "victories" in the NASS and SHA elections?

What remedy is available to a Peter Obi who spent 3 years and no doubt plenty of money fighting for a seat with a 4 year tenure? The seat for one year?

What sanctions are available against INEC for conducting a fraudulent election and other collaborators? Nothing?

What chance does a Gov Peter Obi have of survival with a PDP SHA?

The omens do not look good for a peaceful Anambra especially in the run up to 2007. This looks like a pyrrhic victory for Peter Obi and the people of Anambra because Chris Uba will invariably be calling the shots in the SHA from now on.

Seems to me that things can only get worse for Anambrians before they get any better.

Aluta!

Gwobezentashi

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The Appeal court judgement is only a 'moment's respite', when you think of how long it took for the process to get to this level, and how long it would take for the Supreme court (Ngige may be heading there next unless our electoral laws forbid such in gubernatorial matters), then you can see that it won't be till next year (if at all) that the matter will be brought to its conclusive end, by which time the 2007 elections would have been consequent, and Anambrarians would have latched on to the contending hopefuls in their search for a 'saviour'.

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May the WILL of the beleaguered people of Anambra State be served!

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pls im pissed off with dis whole anambra thing.ngige is in all dis mess bcos he refused to dance to uba's tunes,so what is there to rejoice about?
if u know what difference that guy(ngige)has made in the lives of ordinary pple of anambra,u will not rejoice for this so called victory.i really dont care anymore how ngige got in,isnt it de way others got in even mr president?
anambra has known no good govt till recently and i fear we r going to relapse into bad govt again.
well,ngige,thanks for a job well done in the past 3yrs.i hope peter obi does better anyway.

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Gwobezentashi & Sewe,

You guys have actually hit the nail on the head. This victory is a mixed blessing for Anambra, because the only real winner in this whole affair is the PDP, the same people who precipitated the illegality in the first place. While one may call it a victory for justice finally, we cannot undo what already has been done and we cannot pretend about the fact that if Mr Ngige was on good terms with Abuja or his erstwhile godfather, this decision wouldn’t have come. After all, there are rashes of illegally installed governments all over the states, but which are there because they’re protected by Abuja or Abuja-related interests. But Mr Ngige is a marked man, so he has to go according to these forces.

It is clear that Mr Obi is only a “beneficiary” of the “generosity” of those fighting Ngige. I’ve read in one or two places of how it is Chris Uba who’s actually making the case for Obi; I’ve read of both being on the same table at the same function, with Chris Uba declaring Obi the winner. We may not know what deals were reached (if reached) behind closed doors to get Ngige out and Obi in, even though under normal circumstances, Mr Obi need not to kowtow to anybody to get his due. My fear is that if he’s compromised himself behind the scene to get this position with barely a year remaining for the mandate, he may not get the opportunity to return Anambra to normalcy.

In fact, he may advertently or inadvertently just be used to prepare the ground for a PDP “moonslide” next year. In other words, the PDP thinkers may have reasoned that with Ngige in Government House, it may be difficult for them to wrest the state in an election, knowing their ‘style’ of doing these things. But with him out and with Obi unable to stabilize anything before the next election, not least because of the shortness of time, they can simply put him out of his misery in 2007 more easily than Ngige. This theory may be given fillip by the fact that the final legal decision is coming rather late in the day.

Yeah. In the meantime the people would be celebrating “justice”, but that will only give PDP the cover to perfect its plan. One year to Obi is not too much to sacrifice, especially as they (PDP) are likely to be running the government behind the scene or be sabotaging it, any of which option is good news for them towards 2007.





Uche,

The Appeal Court is the final court of appeal with regard to gubernatorial elections. So, Ngige won’t be able to appeal his case anywhere. This is the end of the road for him. There is of course the moral question of Ngige having illegally enjoyed the office of the governor, complete with the privileges, for three years. He’s being paid the salary; he’s awarded contracts; he’s made appointments and employed people to positions of importance within the state, and he’s done all these and other things without any moral or legal authority. Yet, the fact that he has no such authority is only being revealed now via this decision by the Court of Appeal. Why has this decision taken so long? Why did it have to cost Anambra and Nigeria this much in lives, money and credibility? Why can’t electoral matters be judicially settled before the swearing-in of the elected official, especially where our Constitution are being used to swear in illegal governments as in this case?


CHEERS!

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Uche, It is done. It is over for Ngige with some dignity at least as opposed to being bundled into a toilet by a drunken policeman.

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The embattled outgone governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chris Ngige has accepted the verdict of the Appeal Court which reaffirmed the August 12, 2005 ruling of the five-man Justice Garba Nabaruma-led Election Petition Tribunal which had declared Mr. Peter Obi of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) winner of the Anambra State governorship poll in April 2003. Speaking through his erstwhile Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Fred Chukwuelobe, the governor who was in Abuja said, "I accept the judgement in good fate and urge the good people of Anambra State to support my successor." He also expressed joy that those he referred to as "the cabal that held the state hostage since creation particularly in the last administration before mine has lost out in the entire game". In his view, "what we have today is a new Anambra State that is devoid of any form of misrule and misappropriation of public funds in the name of politics. The state will no longer be the same again! ", Ngige stated. The outgone governor noted that he is handing over a buoyant state to Mr. Peter Obi and that his future is guaranteed, unlike when he took over. His erstwhile deputy, Chief Ugochukwu Nwankwo allied him with his former boss, saying that he strongly believed in the rule of law. While every other person reacted in diverse ways depending on which side of the divide he/she belongs, the chairman of Obi's Campaign Organisation during the 2003 polls, Chief Sylvester Nwobu-Alor welcomed the verdict with both hands. He noted that it was a well known verdict which the electorates gave Obi on April 19, 2003 and was affirmed by the erudite judgement of the Nabaruma panel on August 12, 2005. He however disclosed that Obi's government will not witch-haunt Ngige or any of his aides. "As a matter of fact, some good ones among them would be retained while others will be shown the way out immediately." He acknowledged that Ngige has done quite well but that, "we will surpass him, even within the first six months you'll start seeing the difference."

source: The Guardian Newspaper Breaking News 15.03.06

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Kenn1, there is as yet no evidence that Obi cut any deal with Uba to get in. Sitting at a table with a man at a social or political function does not a conspiracy make. Seems to me that he (Obi) is a marked man himself and is likely to be impeached by the PDP dominated SHA in no time ala Balarabe Musa style. What the PDP seem to want is another election so that they can take (back) the Government House using all means necessary as usual. I don't believe that the PDP will wait for another year to move in.

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Gwobe,


>>>We may not know what deals were reached (if reached) behind closed doors to get Ngige out and Obi in, even though under normal circumstances, Mr Obi need not to kowtow to anybody to get his due.<<<(Kenn)



I did not say there is evidence that Obi has cut any deal with Uba to get in, but the things I’ve said are certainly true. I actually couched it conditionally to indicate that there’s indeed no evidence. However, this is politics. If Uba and Ngige hadn’t fallen out we certainly wouldn’t have had any “evidence” of such a deal between them, would we?

The point is only time will tell what the situation really is. If Obi takes his task seriously and goes about it without fear or favour and without seemingly kowtowing to Uba’s demands, then we can safely say there’s nothing. But if we begin to see him kowtowing to Uba to keep his seat (especially as you seem to think that impeachment awaits him), then we need not physically see any evidence to conclude that something’s happened behind closed doors.


CHEERS!

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The day of judgement has come in Anambra,even though i have some sympathy for Ngige,but the will of the people must be respected and stealing is stealing no matter what kind of stealing is.

Very soon there will be judgement day in Oyo State,all the criminals and the homosexuals rulling Oyo State at the moment will all pay a terrible price for their Madness.