Rivers Supreme Court Judgment: Oyegun Says Something Fundamentally Wrong With The Judiciary
Oyegun has said that there is something fundamentally wrong with the
Judicial arm of Government over the Supreme Court judgment in favor of
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State.
Oyegun said the apex court ruling is “astonishing.”
The APC National Chairman while meeting with Rivers APC Leaders who are
Seeking a eeting With President Mohammadu Buhari, promised that the
judgment of the apex court will be investigated by the party.
He assured that the party national leadership will give necessary support
to ensure successes in subsequent elections in the state.
Odigie-Oyegun: “The APC National leadership has not neglected party
leaders and supporters in Rivers State. The state has always been in the
front burner of discussion and decision in the party.There is obviously
something fundamentally wrong in Rivers state which needs to be
investigated and addressed.
“Your visit have had a sober effect on me. This meeting will kickstart
urgent actions to address what went wrong.
“As of today, there a attempts being made by INEC to bar us from elections
in Anambra and other states. We must address these issues. I still find
the judgement on the Rivers State governorship election totally
astonishing. There is something fundamentally wrong in the Judiciary.
“We have lost very important resource-rich states to the PDP. No matter
how crude oil prices have fallen, it is still the most important revenue
earner for the country.
“I will take up your request to facilitate a meeting with the President.
We will do that as soon as possible and also make it clear that there are
problems which as a party, we must address.
Speaking on behalf of the delegation, Dr. Dakuku Peterside said: “It will
interest you to know that many of our members, supporters and sympathisers
are still at a loss to see us work as orphans. We have a herculean task
explaining to them that we actually form government at the centre. It is
like, we lost the elections. To an overwhelming majority of them, the only
indication that we might be part of government at the federal level is
because our leader and Director General of the All Progressives Congress
Presidential Campaign which led to a people’s revolution that defeated the
former ruling party, and former Governor of the State, Rt. Hon. Chubuike
Rotimi Amaechi is a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“The concerns of our members are re-enforced by the fact that more than
eight months after APC has formed government at the Federal Level, notable
PDP chieftains and members who spent State resources to work assiduously
against us (APC) are still occupying strategic federal government
positions, dispensing patronages to PDP members to the disadvantage and
chagrin of APC members.
Peterside reported that as a result of the unflinching support party
leaders and members gave President Buhari and the APC, they have been
exposed to undue attacks and hatred and internal discriminations.
He said: “We are called all sorts of names including being branded as
traitors and almost live like outcast in our communities and
environments…Even today, we are not out of danger as we a killed,
molested, maimed and insulted”.
Peterside also reported that security infrastructures that were skewed
against the APC before and during the 2015 elections are still working
against and frustrating APC activities in the state. “The partisanship
against us was and is still enormous.” he said.
He said the Independent National Electoral Commission is structured to
‘disfavour’ the APC. “It (INEC) was put in place by the leadership of the
last administration to perpetually protect its interest. We are all
witnesses to how some of these actors found it convenient to annul results
which were favourable to APC but upheld all those favourable to PDP under
the same circumstances in the recently concluded governorship election in
Bayelsa State. Meanwhile, politically speaking Rivers and Bayelsa States
are in the same sub-zone of the South South geo-political zone. What has
been put in place is to marginalise us and our members feel nothing is
being done to change these structures to, atleast, give us a fighting
chance in neutrality.
On the Rivers State rerun elections scheduled for March 19, 2016,
Peterside stated: “The issues of the re-run elections are paramount in our
mind. We have 22 seats in a House of 32-man membership. Winning all 22
seats will give us 23 seats and that will enable us produce the Speaker
of the House. Also, that number is more than the proverbial two-third.
Furthermore, there are 12 House of Representatives seats and all 3
Senatorial Seats to be contested for.
“Presently, the Party does not have a two-third majority in any of the
Chambers of the National Assembly…Now the opportunity to up the Party’s
numbers in these Chambers has come and we expect that the Party will do
all that it takes to win all 12 House of Representatives and 3 Senate
Seats. Even if this may not give it the needed two-thirds but it wil make
the Party to have a robust majority such that it won’t struggle to have
its programmes and plans that require parliamentary inputs to be easily
implemented to achieve its set goals and core mandate.
“There is no gainsaying that Rivers State occupies a strategic political
position in the politics of Nigeria.l
The delegation amongst others requested that:
the APC National Leadership undertake a massive funds drive to finance the
forthcoming re-runs in Rivers state;
the restructuring of the Presidential Amnesty Programme by making sure
that the current leadership and managers of the programme understood the
political connotation of its implementation;
urgent replacement of all agents and heads of agencies that the
immediate-past federal government administration used to frustrate the
Change Revolution;
Purge of vestiges of and sympathisers for the immediate-past federal
government administration in the leadership of Security agencies,
especially in the Police and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.
That political appointments in all Federal government Ministries,
Departments and Agencies including ambassadorial positions be made to
reflect the current realities of a change of government.
A meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari to convey to him messages from
families of the nearly 100 APC supporters killed and others maimed and or
have completely lost their means of livelihood for supprting President
Muhammadu Buhari and the APC. The meeting will also afford the Rivers
delegation an opportunity to confer with President Buhari and proffer
solutions to the challenges and issues.
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