A founding member of the Peoples
Democratic Party and its current Director of Procurement, Wole Oke, on
Saturday said Justice Okon Abang of Federal High Court in Abuja, was
misled by the facts before him in his judgment that sacked Okezie
Ikpeazu as governor of Abia State.
According to Oke, the ruling has
resulted in creating political crisis in the state, adding that the
crisis in PDP should be blamed on its leadership and state governors.
The PDP chieftain stated this in an
interview with education correspondents, during the graduation ceremony
of Lead British International School, Gwarinpa, Abuja.
Oke said the political crisis caused by judicial pronouncements had become too many in Nigeria.
He said, “The crisis in PDP is a very
sad development; our leaders started the problems. The governors and
party leaders caused all these problems. Although I am a foundation
member of PDP, I am sure with time they problems would go. I think that
the court was misled in the Abia State matter. If it has all the facts, I
am sure that the judgment wouldn’t have gone that way.
“The foundation of PDP is so strong that
the crisis would go because we have learnt our lessons. The issue is
this, the various court judgments (on the Abia State crisis) we have are
all from courts of equal jurisdiction. But I am sure the senior courts
would take a position and eventually the Supreme Court would take a
position on the matter and we will have our way. How can you send a
governor packing on contentious issues? It is the Board of State Revenue
that has jurisdiction to determine which certificate is forged or
somebody is under assessed or over assessed. I think the judiciary
should be up and doing.”
Meanwhile, a PDP member, Friday Nwosu,
who contested in the Abia governorship primary, has faulted the judgment
of the Federal High Court in Abuja which sacked Ikpeazu and declared
Uche Ogah as governor of the state.
On Friday, the Federal High Court,
Owerri, dismissed Nwosu’s case by Justice A.I. Allagoa for his inability
to prove that Ikpeazu’s tax documents were forged.
Abang had nullified Ikpeazu’s nomination
as the PDP candidate and directed the Independent National Electoral
Commission to issue the certificate of return to Ogah.
Commending on the judgment, the lead
counsel to Ikpeazu, Theo Nkerie, said Abia State had a tax calendar
which ran from January 1 to December 31, every year. He added that
Ikpeazu having worked for the state government within the period under
contention only collected his tax receipts when he needed them.
He said, “The PAYE (Pay As You Earn)
system is very simple; it is the government agency that deducts taxes
and remit to the Board of Internal Revenue. The civil servants will only
ask for the receipt when he or she needs it and it will be issued
serially from the same tax receipts booklet.
“Many government workers had retired
without collecting their tax receipts. l challenge either Nwosu or Ogah
to present their own tax receipts from wherever they have worked to
prove this otherwise.”
However, Nwosu told one of our correspondents that the court erred in law when it declared Ogah as governor.
He said, “The judgment is in error and
cannot stand judicial scrutiny. Dr. Uche Ogah should not be allowed to
benefit from an exercise he totally condemned by refusing to sign the
result and petitioning the party to conduct another primary election. He
should wait for the rerun of the PDP primaries which he prayed for in
his petition to the party. In the eyes of the law, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu
and I were the only candidates who contested in the party’s primaries.
Since Ikpeazu has been disqualified, I remain the lawful candidate of
the PDP and ought to be declared governor.
“Again, the PDP in its constitution
recognises zoning of political offices. The 2015 governorship position
was rightly zoned to Abia South in the spirit of justice and equity.
Since Ogah is a member of the PDP, he must abide by the decisions of the
party. Therefore, he cannot emerge short-change the people of Abia
South.”
He stated that he would appeal the two
verdicts and urged his teeming supporters across the state to remain
law-abiding, adding that justice would be served on his petition which
is being heard by the court.
Copyright PUNCH.
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