Abia Governorship: Why Appeal Court Judgement is Faulty, By Civil Right Group

Abia Governorship: Why Appeal Court Judgement is Faulty, By
Civil Right Group

 

Civil society groups, under the auspices of Civic International, has expressed concern over an emerging trend whereby electorate in the country are continuously losing their voting rights through judicial pronouncements.

The group particularly frowned at the judgement delivered by the Appeal Court on the Abia State Governorship Election Petition for disenfranchising three local government areas made up of 230,092 voters.

Addressing journalists recently in Abuja, the Coordinator of the group, Abdulrazak Gidado Ajala, said as human rights activists group, it is concerned about the ruling of the Appeal Court because it failed to take into consideration the fact that most of voters whose votes were voided should not have been made to suffer the deprivation.

"As human rights activists, we have discovered that the right to vote of these local government areas has been trampled upon by the judgement of the Appeal Court. They have been maliciously denied the right to participate in the process," he said.

The group faulted the conclusions reached by the Appeal Court, saying it was not possible for the votes of the three local government areas, Obingwa, Osisioma and Isiala Ngwa North, to be voided.

Ajala said instead of defending the rights of the Ngwa people to vote as expected of the court as the last hope of the masses, it erred by denying three local government areas namely Obingwa, Osisioma Ngwa and Isiala Ngwa the right to participate in determining who governs the state.

The civil society group argued that the election should have been declared inconclusive as in the case of Kogi and Bayelsa States since the affected area was more than those of the two states which were declared inconclusive.

“If elections are declared inconclusive in some states because of one local government area with even fewer numbers of voters as witnessed recently in Kogi and Bayelsa States then why should the case of Abia be different?” Ajala asked.

He said the 230,092 voters who collected their PVCs in the three local government areas are capable of swinging the victory to any candidate in the election, calling on the attention of all stakeholders to correct the anomaly.

The coordinator of the group noted that the case of over-voting could not have occurred in the 458 polling units in the three local government areas. “Was it possible that the Appeal Court discovered over-voting in all the 458 polling units and cancelled them where the appellant, Alex Otti, did not present any other result at the Appeal Court except the one declared and submitted by Independent National Election Commission (INEC)? The group wondered.