… Insists Rivers LG Election Must Hold
By Ikenwa Charity O
National Chairman, Zenith Labour Party, ZLP, Chief Dan Iwuanyanwu has raised alarm over what he describes as deficit in the country’s Judiciary on injunctions and counter-injunctions.
The ZLP National boss, said the lower courts seem to have become enterprise, where the highest bidder gets judgement or any injunction at will.
He stated that more worrisome is that, even where the supreme court has taken a position on an issue, the lower courts deviating from it.
Addressing the newsmen in Abuja, Iwuanyanwu, expressed disappointment over court injunction seeking to postpone the election and the other seeking to for the conduct of the election slated for Saturday in Rivers State.
According to him, in Rivers state, Zenith Labour Party just like other political parties, have been campaigning for the election that was supposed to come up on Saturday.
But then, some miscreants went to court to stop the conduct of the election and another group of political parties also went to court in Rivers state to compel the State Independent Electoral Commission SIEC to conduct the election.
“On the other hand, you have two different judgements. One saying, yes go ahead and another saying no don’t go ahead on the same subject matter.”
Iwuanyawu explained that in a situation where there’s injunction saying yes and injunction saying no that it cancels each other.
Urging SIEC to conduct the election, he pointed out that there is no order stopping any election conducted by INEC or SIEC in Nigeria as the law is today
“So, the Independent Electoral Commission in Rivers should go ahead without fear or blinking their eyes to go ahead and conduct the election on Saturday, they will be on the side of the law.
“I don’t know why we want to make trouble and I think the Chief Justice of Nigeria should call them to order. This is an institution that is acting based on the recent supreme court decision on local government autonomy.
But some people after taking fermented burukutu want to stop it but the political parties will not agree because we know how much we have expended.
As I speak to you now, our people are still in the field campaigning from one local government to another.
Apart from the law which states you can’t stop INEC from conducting elections in Nigeria, ‘mutatis mutandis’, it is also applicable to Rivers state independent electoral commission.”
Iwuanyanwu tasked the judiciary to be careful of the politicians.
Continuing, he narrated, “When I left Law school, I practiced with Chief Rotimi Williams, the number one law officer, the doyen of the law profession.
“He was always telling us on the black table that judges should not mingle with the society not to talk of litigants. You will never see the baba in any civic function except if it has to do with the legal profession or of close relatives and that is how we were brought up.
“But today, lawyers like myself have easy access to judges, they dine and wine, even what they do you hear it on the street.
“I think the Chief Justice of Nigeria, we know her pedigree, we know her trajectory, she is a no-nonsense judge should put her feet down and clean the augean stable. Those bad eggs in the judiciary she must have to flush them out. If democracy is democracy which we fought for which we started fighting for while I was in my twenties, if it crumbles, the judiciary will be the greatest part of the problem,” stressed Iwuanyanwu.
The party boss expressed comfort with the clear and unambiguous position which the new CJN took on the zero tolerance for corruption by judicial officers in our country, as he said, “It needs to be emphasised that the matter of forum shopping by parties to soothe them and deliberate conflicting judgements by judges especially at the trial courts have become scandalous.
He further lamented how embarrassing that Senior lawyers persuade their clients to sponsor such duplicitous processes for pecuniary reasons that affect them only, expounding that scandalous and embarrassing occurrence have become the order of the day even in federal high courts and FCT high court in the federal capital territory.
“It is common knowledge that the heads of these courts who assign these cases to particular judges are directly and indirectly culpable in the shame that all of us face in recent times.”
He enjoined the CJN to put the necessary machinery in place to reassure Nigerians that indeed the court is the last hope of the common man as her name will be written in gold if she is credited with cleaning and cleansing the judiciary.
“It is painful you don’t know what we lawyers are seeing. And for those who are involved in forum shopping, it will no longer work because federal high courts have the same jurisdiction with the state high courts.
“When a federal high court gives an order different from the one given by a state high court on the same subject matter like I said, they cancel each other. So, it is too late for the Rivers state electoral commission not to conduct the local government election. They should go ahead,” he added.
The statement read in part, “There is something we call ‘stare decisis’ in law, whereby when a supreme court has taken a position, the lower courts must abide by it. Courts of appeal, federal high court, magistrate court, grand khadi and any other court must abide by it.
“But we have a situation where lawyers like me and even senior lawyers older than myself at the bar have become instruments of making the judiciary not to be the hope of the common man. Even when the law is clear on the matter.
“It is settled law that no court can stop INEC and by extension State Independent Electoral commissions from conducting an election. It is also a settled law and even the man on the street knows it.
Despite this provision known by, lawyers, they will bring the cases before justices and they will still go ahead and grant what I will call black market injunction. If the law says you should not do something and you go ahead to do it, that is black market injunction.
Iwuanyanwu noted that those who are forum shopping as was put by the CJN, looking for injunctions to stop local government elections, should be on a wild goose chase.
End.
