HISTORY WILL VINDICATE THE JUST

History shall vindicate the just. This is what one of the greatest Nigerian
> nationalists, Nnamdi Azikiwe said in his conclusion of his treatise to
> condemn the alleged rigging by the defunct National Party of Nigeria, NPN,
> of the 1983 Presidential Election which is one of the chains of events that
> culminated in the overthrow of the democratically elected regime of
> President Shehu Shagari by the Military. This is precisely what I told
> myself when the Independent National Electoral Commission, in a terse
> advertorial stated without any equivocation that gubernatorial elections
> shall be conducted in all the States of the Federation save Edo, Rivers and
> Anambra States come 2011.

Before now speculations were rife that there would
> be no gubernatorial elections in States such as Cross River, kogi, Adamawa,
> Sokoto and kebbi on the ground that the Governors there had won fresh
> elections conducted after their previous mandates were set aside by the
> Court. It was argued that these Governors would not be entitle or eligible
> to stand election because the nullification of their previous mandates on
ground of electoral fraud by the Court means that their tenure would start
> counting from when they took new oath of office after they won these fresh
> elections not from the date they took oath of office before nullification of
> previous mandates.

I was so piqued by this argument which to my mind
> tantamount to standing law and logic and legitimatization of electoral fraud
>;so much so that I fired a letter in March , 2010, to the former Chairman
> of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor Maurice Iwu,
> seeking clarification on whether or not there will be gubernatorial election
> in my home State, Cross River come 2011.

When the Electoral Commission
> failed to response to my request I had to file an action in the Federal High
> Court seeking judicial interpretation of Section 180 subsection 2 (B) of
> the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999. However the
> suit was still pending when INEC made this bold decision. two of the
> Respondents in the case, Liyel Imoke and the Attorney General of the
> Federation objected to the power of the Court to hear my case on the grounds
> that I do not possess locus standi; that my case does not disclose a
> reasonable cause of action and that my case was not initiated by due process
> of the law. Two senior counsel were engage by these Two Respondents.
> But surprisingly the Third Respondent which is the INEC maintained a studied
> and ominous silence as it refused to even enter an appearance. It turn that
> it was a signal of the position INEC has now taken. The position of inec has
> sounded the death knell of electoral fraudsters who think that they can take
> the benefit of their wrong doing by having tenure elongation to enjoy the
> loot of electoral robbery. It is clear that the days of electoral roguery
> in the country are numbered. I heartily salute INEC for his bold decision
> which has send a cold into the spine of electoral robbers in the States
> concerned.
> Okoi OFEM Obono-OBLA
>
>