When I was growing up as a child, my father of blessed memory once counseled me that the stone you see coming should not blind your eyes, unfortunately, that has been the lot of the Peoples Democratic Party candidate in the last year Governorship election, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu.
After the election, I came up with a post mortem analysis of the poll, urging the candidate of the PDP, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu and his party leadership not to waste their time and resources going to the tribunal. But that they should join hands with Mr. Godwin Obaseki to develop Edo State. I gave that advice from the bottom of my heart because Ize-Iyamu is my younger cousin and one of those who together, with a handful of those who were deregistered from the PDP by Tony Anenih and his ilk, we founded the Grace Group that metamorphosed into Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and after the amalgamation of like-minded parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Bu it is very sad to know that my counsel went unheeded as they proceeded to the election petition tribunal. Some characters and hangers- on are deliberately sulking and milking him dry. The tribunal judgement went exactly as predicted and I was compelled to come up with yet another treatise calling on my friend not to go to Appeal the Court.
Again, as predicted, the Court of Appeal sitting in Benin City, Edo State, last Friday threw out the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate challenging the victory of Governor Godwin Obaseki at the election petitions tribunal which reaffirmed Obaseki’s victory in the September 28th governorship election in the state.
The appellants urged the court to hold that the tribunal judges erred and truncated their right to fair hearing by the unequal treatment given to the cases of the parties, “by first finding fault, discrediting, disbelieving and dismissing their petition before considering at all and reviewing the testimonies of the respondents’ witnesses and, thus, occasioning a miscarriage of justice.
To make matters worse, the PDP and Pastor Ize-Iyamu had filed 41 grounds of appeal to overturn the tribunal’s ruling. Interestingly, the court pontificated that the tribunal should be commended for delivering a detailed and sound judgment.
The judgement of the Appeal Court was unanimous. There was no dissenting voice among the judges. They even went ahead to praise the Justice Badamasi-led tribunal for doing a very good job in the first instance.
When the Election Petition Tribunal upheld the election of Mr. Godwin Obaseki of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and his Deputy as the duly elected Governor and Deputy Governor of Edo State respectively, many peope expected Ize-Yamu to go and rest.
The tribunal judgment wasn’t much of a surprise to majority of Edo people who immediately went into wild jubilation over the reaffirmation of the popular mandate which they willingly gave Governor Godwin Obaseki and his deputy, Phillip Shaibu. The tribunal chairman, Badamasi held that the petitioners failed in ALL fronts to prove the allegations as pleaded in their petitions and consequently threw out their petitions.
Interestingly too, the tribunal held that while the petitioners abandoned some of their pleadings, “witnesses evidences were controverted under cross examination’’. In the same vein, the tribunal noted that “the much talked about ticking and over voting by the petitioners was not specifically proved beyond reasonable doubts. “And not calling witnesses to prove their allegations of corrupt practices and over voting was fatal to their case and is deemed to have abandoned their pleadings,’’
As Comrade Adams Oshiomhole asserted at the Appeal Court victory dance: “The APC is ready for the PDP to even take their appeal to the World Court in Hague. The APC candidate, Godwin Obaseki will defeat them.” It was not much of a surprise that the PDP Lawyers, its loquacious or life chairman, Dan Orbih and some other parasitic elements said they were heading to the Supreme Court to contest the Appeal Court judgement. But for Pastor Ize-Iyamu, it remains a stone he sees coming. He shouldn’t allow the stone burst his political eyes.
Perhaps, the evidence that the Edo PDP were unable to produce at the Court of first instance, and the argument they failed to put before the respected judges of the Appeal Court would now be produced and then accepted at the Supreme Court! It is indeed obvious that the money delivered from Allison Madueke and Dasuki with bullion van to Edo PDP while the party held sway at the federal is inexhaustible. The Bullion Van is still talking!
With the judgment of the Appeal Court, I stand justified and I also know that the Edo PDP’s journey to the supreme court remains an exercise in futility and abuse of court process. Nothing would come out of such a lethal judicial journey except the clear fact that the victory of Godwin Obaseki and Phillip Shaibu would be stamped, sealed and permanently delivered. The PDP lawyers are clearly having a feast and let it continue to flow to the hungry.
Edo people can be rest assured that their performing governor has come to stay. Edo sons and daughters should be rest assured that the massive infrastructural development currently going on in the state would continue unhindered but would progress on higher and bigger scale. They should be equally assured that Governor Obaseki will continue to create the right environment for job creation for the army of unemployed youths in the state. Edo people should be rest assured that the APC Government would continue to guarantee their overall development and satisfaction. But in reciprocation, citizens should play their roles through prompt payment of taxes, rents and rates. They should obey traffic rules and refrain from criminal activities. That way, the State would be the best in the country under Governor Godwin Obaseki.
Edo people should rally their support round Governor Godwin Obaseki so that after his eight years rule, Edos can have every reason to give thanks to God almighty for giving them a Governor of Governors, a Governor that surpassed their expectations and who would have performed better than all his predecessors in office.
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• Mr. Dan Owegie is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Edo State.
