Emma Ujah
17 July 2008
Senator Liyel Imoke, who was sacked as Governor of Cross River State by the Appeal Court on Monday has opened up on the judgement, saying that he was caught unawares and shocked as he least expected the verdict but expressed optimism at regaining his seat at the re-run election ordered by the court.
His words: "Everybody was caught unawares. I was on my way to the office. I didn't even know that the judgment was to be delivered that day. My lawyers didn't even tell me that they would be delivering the judgement that day.
"It was unexpected. We expected that the judgment would be in our favour. The issues that were raised, to our minds were not such that should warrant the nullification of an election. We expected that at the worst, the matter could be sent back to the trial court for a trial, so we didn't expect that judgment but the judgment came and we abide by it.
"I have already handed the affairs of the state to the acting governor and I did that immediately in Calabar", he said.
The issues raised at the Appeal court upon which it rested its verdict to annul the and ordered a re-run were failure on the part of the former governor to call witnesses at the trial stage and to present his certificate of return.
His words: "It was like saying yes you own this land but you did not present the Certificate of Occupancy, so yes we are not saying you don't own the land but your failure to present your C of O is fatal to your case."
"At the trial stage the opposition brought in three witnesses and raised issues that there were irregularities in six polling booths. So my lawyer opted for, O k, fine, do we now disprove six polling booths out of how many thousands? Or do we say ok if its the six polling booths that you have, let us assume that there were irregularities in these polling booths, let us give them to the opposition. That was his own strategy.
"It does not establish that as a result of that there were irregularities in the entire state. It was just a matter of his own approach. Now the Appeal Court took those six polling booths and now applied it. It appeared in the judgment that based on the results in these polling booths, there couldn't have been election in the entire state," he said.
He expressed concern that the decision would affect the lives of the citizenry in many ways, much more so than himself, as a person as it would slow down government programmes.
"When a decision like this is made government slows down, programmes are affected, if you go to Cross River, at the risk of sounding immodest, people would tell you that we did campaign and in deed held an election. It was not disputed that we held an election and that I won. Cross River was not one of those states where there were stories of all sorts of things.
Cross River was never in the limelight for irregularities. We campaigned very effectively, I campaigned very assiduously, got the popular mandate because I did not want any other mandate other than the mandate of the people.
"I think that in a way affected our response to the matter in court, because to us Cross Riverians, or to most Cross Riverians, it appeared to us that that it was a matter that was not contentious.
"We assumed that it was a judgment that would reflect the wishes of the people. I think that was what one must always look for even when you go to court- that the judgment of the court would be reflective of the popular wishes of the people.
Meets with Yar'Adua, PDP
Sen. Imoke said he had met President Umaru Yar'Adua and the PDP leadership in Abuja and that he received positive reactions.
He said there was no doubting his preparedness and assurances of winning the re-run election, based on the services he had rendered to the people of the state in the last 14 months.
According to him, if he had not done well, a lot of other issues would have been thrown up by his opponents and that he had re-built confidence of Cross Riverians within the period he was in office.
On lessons learnt, he said "we should not take any situation for granted, political or otherwise. The judiciary is something that I respect and of course I respect their judgment. As a rule I always keep my distance when it comes to legal matters to ensure that there is no interference in matters of this nature.
"I think we need to uphold the integrity of the judiciary. I believe a decision of this nature will be analysed by the experts. And there will be lessons to be drawn from it."
According to him, the judgment had strengthened him politically and that it has brought him a lot of sympathy even from those who are supposed to be in the opposition. In the light of the judgment, we will re-mobilise, thank God we have been working with the grass roots and we even have more support now than in 2007.
He was also optimistic that the acting Governor would not upset the structure on ground before the re-run election. Besides, he said all members of the State House of Assembly and Local Government Chairmen were PDP members and did not see why the re-run would not be an easy ride for him.
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