POLITICAL
INJUNCTIONS: BE PONTIUS PILATE, HANDS-OFF! Ebun Olu-Adegboruwa Esq to Judges
-----
Forwarded Message -----
From: Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa <ebun_olu@yahoo.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2016 4:26 PM
PRESS
RELEASE ON:
THE
PDP AND THE JUDICIARY
In
recent times, we have all witnessed the schemes and tactics of politicians, in
their attempts to outdo themselves in the struggle for
power. Of concern is the role being played by the judiciary, in many of these
shameful tactics, as an instrument of support, for one political camp against
the other.
This is one of the despicable
legacies of the now discredited People's Democratic Party, PDP, in its 16 years
reign. Whilst the PdP held sway, Nigerians were daily entertained by mind boggling
stories of political injunctions, from Anambra State to Ogun State, and indeed
across Nigeria. Various factions within the PdP were almost certain of one
latest "court injunction", against their opponent, the following day,
as day follows night. And I have wondered why the chief judges of the states
concerned, or indeed that of the federal high court, have not been able to
coordinate and rein in these forest of injunctions.
The latest is in respect of the Ondo
State Governorship Election, especially as between the Makarfi and Sheriff led
factions of the PdP. Predictably so, the Hon Justice Abang of the Federal High
Court, upped his game last week when he ordered INEC to accept Mr Jimoh Ibrahim
as the candidate of the PdP, ostensibly without any hearing from Mr Eyitayo
Jegede, SAN, another leading contender for the same office, who was not named
as a party in the proceedings. And whilst we were trying to digest that, a High
Court in Akure, with its clearly limited jurisdiction, had rolled out a fresh injunction,
restraining INEC, from removing the name of Jegede. And before we could say
Jack, another State High Court, also in Akure, had issued another injunction,
to restrain the Jimoh Ibrahim faction, of the same PdP, from parading
themselves as representatives of the PdP in Ondo State. And just before the end
of today, we expect to be jolted with another injunction, yet from another
court, on the same issue. As is expected, petitions upon petitions, have been
flying left right and Centre, against these injunctions.
In the light of the recent events
involving judicial officers and the DSS, one would have thought that judicial
officers will become more restrained and circumspect, in dishing out
"political injunctions", which all seem to create tension and heat
the body polity, in Nigeria. A situation where judges have become willing tools
in the hands of desperate politicians is no longer acceptable, for our very
fragile and nascent democracy.
And the ruling APC seemed to have
taken the inglorious lead from the PdP, as in the same Ondo State, the court is
being urged to declare a candidate for the APC, for the upcoming Governorship
election.
Our jurisprudence is fairly now well
settled that the issue of candidacy of a political party, should be the internal
affairs of the party. The courts should wash their hands, like Pontius Pilate
did in the case of Jesus, from bloody political cases, that seem to displace
the power of political parties to choose their candidates.
Whereas we advocate and support the
entrenched right of access to court and the statutory power of the courts to
settle disputes, the national judicial council should by now have measures in
place, through which conflicting and inconsistent rulings and judgments of
courts of coordinate jurisdiction, will be a taboo. The NJC should not fold its
hands, to be foisted with another 'sting operation', before it intervenes in
the festering Ondo Governorship disputes.
Questions should be raised, suo
motu, by the Hon Chief Justice of Nigeria, who is seised with the power of
discipline and control, over the entire judiciary. The CJN should take judicial
notice of the myriad of these "overnight injunctions", and help to
salvage the image of the judiciary.
I therefore appeal to all
politicians, to all our judges, the Nigerian Bar Association and indeed all
stakeholders within the Bar and Bench, to urgently rise up and tame the monster
of "political injunctions", before the nation is thrown into another
democratic abortion.
The PdP as a political party, should
rise above its petty internal squabbles and square up to play the role of
positive and credible opposition, whilst the APC should restrain itself from
joining the ugly train of multiple court orders, on the same subject matter, in
order that it may begin to deliver upon its many campaign promises, from which
it seemed to have derailed totally.
Thank you.
Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, Esq.
Lekki, Lagos.
27/10/2016
Life without Christ is crisis
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