Lagos — - Ogun AD wants Obasanjo, Daniel to resign
From Chuks Okocha in Abuja, Toba Suleiman in Abeokuta, Christopher Isiguizo in Owerri and Ndubuisi Ugah in Lagos
All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) presidential candidate in the 2003 general elections, Major Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), yesterday said he would not mind how long it takes but that he would pursue his petition against the re-election of President Olusegun Obasanjo to the last stage allowed him by the constitution.
Buhari who was reacting to Monday's judgement of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal which upheld Obasanjo's victory also vowed to ensure his party get justice through the judicial process.
Also reacting to another aspect of the tribunal verdict in which it nullified the results of the April 19 presidential election results in Obasanjo's home state, Ogun, the state's branch of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and Afenifere, the pan-Yoruba socio-political group have called on the President and Governor Gbenga Daniel to resign.
Addressing a world press conference at ANPP national secretariat, Abuja, Buhari said: "No doubt, it has taken us a long time to reach this stage, but we are certainly not in the least worried about the length of time. We are ready to be patient and wait, and sit it out, no matter how long it takes, because, we are not looking for quick fixes.
"By deciding to pursue this matter to its logical conclusion, we certainly hope to uncover the truth of the result of the presidential election.
"Clearly, if our new democracy could be so brazenly raped this way, and our civil society groups and other oversight institutions of the democratic system were too weak and fledgling to get us remedy, our only hope lay in the nation's judiciary. And that was why we decided to challenge the result of the presidential election at the Court of Appeal.
"But even more importantly, we hope to, in the process, make example to the nation to commit and rededicate itself to the democratic process - a free and fair electoral way of choosing its leadership, and an independent judicial system for setting the anomalies and distortions of the electoral process right.
"This is the bigger picture of our struggle and the ultimate goal of our case. If we were to terminate the struggle at this stage or at some earlier stage, what could we have said to those killed or maimed in this struggle to defend their right to electoral freedom and free choice? And what can we say to the millions who had their votes stolen?" Buhari asked.
Reacting to insinuations that he might be compelled to abandon the case, Buhari said, "No, we would never abandon this struggle; we would pursue it to a successful end. And, in any case, it had never been in our character to abandon matters halfway through. Luckily, even with respect to the last polls, we have had precedents.
"Ultimately we shall overcome, because our cause is right; and we have full confidence in the ability and neutrality of the Supreme Court to find a just and equitable solution to the matter of the rigged elections. This belief is based on what we have so far observed; and this is in spite of our very bitter experiences at the hands of tribunals and other courts in at least 10 states with respect to our petitions in gubernatorial elections and elections into both Federal and State legislatures.
"Even yesterday's judgment has not reduced the level of our confidence in the judicial system. That is indeed why we have now decided to appeal the decision of the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land and the final arbiter in the case.
"As earlier said, it is our belief that the judgment of the Court of Appeal in the case was given against overwhelming weight of evidence. This, however, would in no way dim our belief that the courts have the final right and competence to interpret our laws and decide the merit of this case.
"It has turned out to be for the country, as is necessary to the electoral process and the development of democracy as the actual voting itself.
"This court case that the party and I instituted and the appeal, whose notice we now give, must therefore be seen for what they are - an integral part of the electoral process that has been constitutionally provided for.
"It is true that initially I didn't want to go to court over the matter; and I was only persuaded - almost coerced - into it by the party and the force of wounded public opinion and the insistence of our supporters.
"I only reluctantly consented to commence litigation because I genuinely feared that that was the only path in which salvation lay; and, obviously, the people who had given their all to this democratic process, must not be allowed to totally lose hope.
"With an atmosphere charged with all the emotion and the painful sense of loss felt by the people, we feared that unless the path to court was taken, a situation of near anarchy might have developed to engulf us all.
"This was what we have tried to avoid. In several other ways, too, we had gone out of our way to restrain our supporters from taking the law into their hands. And, instead, we had tried to sensitize and orient them into accepting the principles and spirit of democratic contest, and make them accept the superiority of democracy over all the available alternatives," the ANPP presidential candidate explained.
Lamenting the partisan nature of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Buhari said, "nobody was in any doubt about the gross violations of the Electoral Act 2002 committed by INEC, by the police and other law-enforcement agencies of the Federal Government. And nobody can forget so easily the unprovoked violence visited on ordinary law-abiding voters.
"In the course of the hearings we subpoenaed INEC to produce the EC (8) forms on which the grand total of results they announced were collated.
"Their failure to produce the form represents either contempt of court which is bad, or that the collations could not be tendered in court on account of internal inconsistencies which is worse. In either case, failure or refusal to tender the final collated figures rendered the elections null and void according to the law.
"The Court of Appeal should on this score alone have nullified the elections and ordered fresh polls.
"We have no doubt at all that we have made our case. We have established cases of electoral malpractices in states across the country," he added.
According to Buhari, money and other inducements were used to influence voters behaviour in areas where the elections had taken place, while thugs and elements in the security forces were employed to intimidate, maim, or even kill voters.
Giving details of the appeal, the ANPP candiate's lawyer, Chief Mike Ahamba said the party and Buhari would appeal the judgement within the specified time limit of 21 days.
The ANPP National Chairman, Chief Don Etiebet, the National Secretary, Hon. Sani El katuzu, Yobe State governor Bukka Abba Ibrahim, and other chieftains of the party attended the Press conference.
In Abeokuta the Ogun AD while calling on Obasanjo and Daniel to resign based on the recent judgement of the tribunal, which frowned at the widespread irregularities that greeted the general elections in the state said the duo were beneficiaries of a dubious mandate.
It argued that the resignation was the only justifiable way Obasanjo and Daniel could assure Nigerians and Ogun State indigenes particularly, that they are men of 'proven integrity'.
Afenifere and AD, in separate statements signed by 'Yinka Odumakin and Abimbola Awofeso, National Publicity Secretary and State Secretary respectively, argued that "the voiding of the results of 2003 presidential polls in Ogun State by the Court of Appeal and the confirmation of irregularities in many other states by the same court has only given judicial pronouncement to what we all know".
Afenifere said "prior to the ruling of the Appeal Court, President Obasanjo himself had given credence to the fraud charge when he openly confessed in his diatribe to Chief Audu Ogbeh that both Governor Chris Ngige and Mr. Chris Uba told him in his office that the PDP did not win the April 19, 2003 elections in Anambra State".
The group noted that Obasanjo has likened Ngige and Uba as "armed robbers" but however, added that "with the verdict of the Appeal Court, the nation does not have to whisper it again that these armed robbers have a "commander-in-chief".
Afenifere said it understood that the majority of the tribunal members did not agree with Justice Sylvester Nsolor's dissenting ruling to annul the entire presidential election to avoid a breakdown of law and order. The group added that the voiding of the polls in Ogun State has raised some fundamental issues which needed to be addressed.
Noting that the Appeal Court ruling was an indictment on the electorate that have for too long acquiesced to all manners of evil and tolerated flagrant violation to their rights to freely elect their leaders, Afenifere expressed regret that the situation would continue "so long as 'armed robbers' continue to impose themselves on them (electorate)".
"If the President had rigged so massively in his home state, it is left to imagination what he did in other states and other elections.
"If Nigerians would accept to live with this 'stolen Presidency' till 2007, the rest of Africa deserves an upright leader; and as such President Obasanjo should vacate the seat of African Union (AU) chairmanship in the interest of the democratization project in Africa", the statement added.
Also, AD observed that the Court of Appeal judgement had gone ahead to vindicate the party that "the widespread electoral roguery witnessed in Ogun State in the April 19, 2003 elections" have been villified but now vindicated by the Court of Appeal which stated that "votes recorded for Obasanjo were far higher than the register of voters...in absolute term, Obasanjo received over 600,000 votes more than the governorship candidate on the same date, time and same polling unit".
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The party said "from the landmark judgement, it is now clear that the robbers identified by the President in Anambra State were equally in Ogun State".
"For the President, who is the acclaimed number one moralist in the country and his party, PDP, the time is now for him to take the path of honour, resign now and be remembered as a man of principle or be damned", the statement stated.
AD noted that "for Otunba Gbenga Daniel as a 'Christian', we urge him to be true to his faith and resign honourably". The party also added that "all members of the State House of Assembly, who benefited from the electoral fraud as well as the lecturers of tertiary institutions in the state who were used to write fictitious electoral results and now serving in OGD administration should also resign".
The party called on indigenes of the state and Nigerians in general "to appreciate the sacrifices of AD governors for the peace, progress and sustenance of our nascent democracy by our not challenging the crimes committed against the people of the state on April 19, 2003".
Also, the AD in Ogun State, Dr. Femi Okurounmu, said INEC gave room for the rigging during the elections.
According to him, the court's verdict on the presidential election in the state was an indication that Obasanjo was not popular even in his country home.
"If the President could rig elections in his own state, what will you say about other states? "The dissenting judge gave strictly legal judgement, while three others gave what I will call political judgement. They are thinking of the harm it will do to the country, if suddenly a man who has barely two years to spend in office is removed."
However, the lmo State Government yesterday described the tribunal judgement as a good omen for the country's fledging democracy.
Briefing newsmen at the Government House Owerri, Tuesday, the Chief Press Secretary(CPS), to the state governor, Chief Bright Nwelue said the fact that one of the Justices differed from the three others showed that they were completely independent of government's interference.
He hailed the judiciary for the landmark judgement, maintaining that their courage in cancelling the polls in Ogun State following alleged irregularities that characterised it had further "restored our hope in them".
The government also commended Obasanjo for allowing the rule of law to hold sway.
While the case lasted, Mr President concentrated on his job without been detered or distracted. That is indeed the quality of a true democrat," it stated.
