CLEM AGUIYI 
D ave Umahi is the Governor of Ebonyi State whose legacy and political future is now challenged due to an avoidable political miscalculation. In sacking Governor Umahi and his Deputy Kelechi Igwe along with 16 other lawmakers over their defection from PDP to APC Justice Inyang Ekwo in his well- considered judgement stated that all votes belong to the political party. That the votes polled by a political party could not be transferred to or be utilised by another political party or by a member of another political party. The Supreme Court has been consistent on this in many decided cases. Being a high-profile case, the judgment had elicited wide ranging reactions from political analysts, social commentators, interest groups and senior legal practitioners, including Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), Chief Robert Clarke (SAN) and notably of recent Chief Femi Falana (SAN). Umahi himself made emotional and incendiary comments against the judge, abused the Judiciary as an institution which further inflamed the fury of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) while not taking sides on the judgement demanded for an unreserved apology from Umahi to Justice Ekwo and to the bench. Umahi had since apologised. A lesson why we must always chew our words and avoid reacting out of emotion and anger. One of the problems we have in this country is people drunk with power believing they are above the law. When they cannot procure the conscience of a judge they resort to bullying and intimidation. Both Umahi and PDP have the right to contest this matter up to the Supreme Court. I recognise Umahi’s right of appeal, and it’s good that he has appealed against the judgement. It’s my earnest hope that the Appeal Court would give the matter accelerated hearing, as the issues being canvassed by both parties’ borders on party loyalty and the future of our democracy. Having read through the sound and well researched declaratory judgement of Justice Inyang Ekwo and also Umahi’s eight grounds of appeal, it’s my opinion that the appeal will not survive. Ekwo was courageous and thorough in his judgement. Umahi’’s eviction from office is only a question of time. The judge was right in his submission that ‘the constitution being silent on the defection of a governor or his deputy shouldn’t be celebrated or mischievously flaunted as failure of a remedy for a situation of such nature’. The court cannot say it is helpless because of a lacuna. Where there is a cause, there must be a way. As per the 16 members of the State House of Assembly who joined the governor in the ill-fated voyage to decamp from the party that sponsored their election, their removal has been judicially put to rest in many decided cases pursuant to section 68(1) (g) of the 1999 CFRN which expressly prohibits cross carpeting by legislators and provided circumstances in which legitimate defection is permissible. In the case of Ifedayo Abegunde, the lawmaker representing Akure South/ North Federal Constituency of Ondo State, the Supreme Court ordered the lawmaker to immediately vacate his seat following his defection from the Labour Party which sponsored his election to the ruling APC. Section 221 of the 1999 CFRN (as amended) provides that no association other than a political party canvass for votes for any candidate at any election or contribute funds of any political party or the election expense of any candidate at an election. This presupposes that the ballots casted in an election belong to the political party. The candidate is only an agent of the party and cannot on his own transfer the votes garnered by a political party to another party. An elected representative in exercise of his right of freedom of association can decamp to any political party of his/ her choice but will first resign from his elected position because the votes belong to the political party. INEC will have no excuse than to conduct a special election in the affected areas in line with Section 177(c) of the constitution. The removal of the defecting lawmakers who had been ordered to refund all salaries and allowances they collected will no doubt cleanse our political atmosphere and serve as a deterrent to others. The sad thing about Umahi’s case is that he is one public officer whose tenure would have ended in praise and applause having changed the face of Ebonyi State with intimidating infrastructures. The last time I visited the once backward state, I was impressed by the level of development credited to him. These were weeks before he infamously decamped from PDP, under which platform he was elected governor to the opposition APC. Not only did he cross carpet, he coerced other elected officers from the state to cross carpet with him. He went ahead to conscript all the mobile and immobile assets of his former party and transferred these assets to APC. On the reasons why he defected to APC, he claimed without proof that he left PDP because the party had no plan of zoning her presidential ticket to the South East. To any keen observer that excuse was lame and mischievous because neither the APC to which he decamped to has any intention of zoning their presidential ticket to the South East. I had cause then to write on this page that Umahi had miscalculated or was ignorant of the machinations of APC. The party was founded with a clear-cut ideology to subjugate and exclude a section of the country from the affairs of the state. The South East where Umahi comes from was marked for exclusion and subjugation. The APC party leadership never hid this unpatriotic and unnationalistic intention to polarise and divide the nation in a manner that will permanently damage Nigeria. It is reflected in the appointments they made, the infrastructures they deployed and their response to issues. Those that saw the danger in the direction APC was heading posed spoke against it. Late Maitama Sule warned against it. Retired Col Dangiwa Umar wrote against it. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo condemned the grand conspiracy and likewise many other well-meaning Nigerians. For Umahi to now convince himself that APC will rotate power to the South East was one miscalculation too many. APC from formation had the grand plan to rotate power between the North and South West and vice versa to the complete exclusion of others – in particular the South East. A political hegemony that never allowed you an ear drop to the gate of power will never hand over the number one job to you hence I am surprised that Umahi in his political wisdom and sagacity will associate with such hara-kiri. Some senior lawyers, who have questioned the judgement sacking Umahi, had erroneously believed the judge erred by not relying on the authority of the case of AGF v Atiku (2007) 20 WRN1. What they failed to realize was that the issue for determination was the legal priority of the then president declaring the office of his deputy vacant for abandoning the party on whose platform he and the president were elected. The issue for determination in that case was not the validity of the votes polled by PDP. Even though the court rightly observed that the constitution was silent on the defection of a vice president, the court neither justified the defection nor upheld the defection based on the Vice President’s exercise of his fundamental right of freedom of association. The court simply determined that the president has no power to declare the office of his deputy vacant. This is also distinct from the case of Amaechi v Omehia where the court rightly decided that the ballots polled in an election belongs to the party hence it transferred PDPs votes to Amaechi. It is on record that the Supreme Court has been consistent on the issue of cross carpeting which has bedevilled the political morality of this country and I don’t see them making an exception in this instance because the person that crossed carpeted is a governor. The Supreme Court has also been consistent that the votes belonged to political parties and not to the individual. The validity of the votes polled by PDP in the election of Umahi and his deputy was the issue determined before Justice Ekwo and that’s going to be the issue before both the Appeal Court and Supreme Court. It is also important to note that the immunity conferred on a governor by the constitution does not include immunity to transfer the votes of the party upon which the governor was elected to another party that lost the election. It is my view that Umahi miscalculated and will be heartbroken on two fronts. Politicians should learn to respect the mandate of the people they are representing.
