Mimiko makes it - Wins, weeps at Appeal Court

By Uchechukwu Olisah | Published February 24, 2009

AFTER waiting for days with bated breath, coupled with unprecedented tension that literally soaked the air in Ondo State, the die was yesterday cast as an appeal court sitting in Benin City, the Edo State capital, removed the governor, Dr. Olusegun Agagu from office and replaced him with Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, his main rival in theApril 14, 2007 governorship election.

Agagu was the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the election while Mimiko was the candidate of the Labour Party (LP).

Immediately the final verdict was given by the Justice Umar Abdulahi-led five-man panel, the people trooped to the streets, chanting various songs in praise of Mimiko.

From Oba Adesida Road, Oyemekun, First Bank, NEPA to other major streets of the town, people were jubilating as they showered encomiums on the judges that upheld the judgment of the Garba Nabaruma-led tribunal.

The people of Akure who had stayed indoors for fear of being attacked before the ruling could not hide their joy over the verdict. Major markets in the town had been closed in accordance with the directive of the traditional ruler of the town, Oba Oluwadare Adesina.

Most of the banks and other financial institutions did not open for business, while those that opened only offered skeletal services. At the Governor’s Office and the secretariat, civil servants stayed away from their offices to monitor proceedings from their various homes.

The Court of Appeal, in a unanimous decision in Benin City declared Mimiko winner of the April 14, 2007 governorship election. In declaring Mimiko as the duly-elected governor, the appellate court dismissed the appeal filed by Dr. Agagu against the verdict of the Ondo State Election Petition Tribunal which removed him as the governor of the state.

The five-member panel, headed by the president of the court, Justice Umar Abdullahi, in nullifying the election of Agagu, affirmed the judgment of the Justice Garba Nabaruma-led election tribunal.

“The issues canvassed by other appellants in their respective appeals have also been disposed of in the same Appeal No. CAB/EPT/342A/08. In the final analysis, it is clear that all the appeals lack merit. They are accordingly dismissed. The judgment of the tribunal on the 25th day of July 2008 is hereby affirmed. It is therefore ordered as follows:

“ (1)That the election of the appellant, Dr. Olusegun Agagu, as the governor of Ondo State at the governorship election of 14th April 2007 be and is hereby nullified. (2) That the first respondent, Rahman Olusegun Mimiko, having satisfied the requirement of section 179 (2)(a) and (b) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 and by virtue of section 147 (2) of the Electoral Act No. 2 of 2006 be and is hereby declared as the governor of Ondo State of Nigeria,” the judgment read in part.

The Court of Appeal held that there was no relief seeking that the election should be nullified and a fresh one conducted, asserting that in the absence of such a relief seeking the voidance of the governorship election held in Ondo State on 14th April 2007, it was not competent to accede to the request. The court also said the tribunal never found that the election was vitiated by serious and substantial irregularities.

Inside the courtroom, tears of joy, which cascaded the cheeks of Dr. Mimiko, and ecstatic jubilation, greeted the Court of Appeal’s declaration.

Immediately after Justice Abdullahi’s pronouncement and the concurrence of Justices Amina Augie, Kumai Bayang Akaas, Ndukwe Anyanwu and Ayo Salami, a horde of security personnel swarmed on Mimiko and built a ring of protection around him.

Outside the courtroom, it was all singing and dancing as Mimiko was chauffeur-driven in an open roof jeep from where he acknowledged cheers from scores of supporters, admirers and well-wishers who lined up in the front of the court premises at the Benin end of the Benin-Auchi road in Benin City, chanting and waving.

The Court of Appeal said that Agagu should have raised the issue of the competence of Mimiko’s petition at the lower tribunal, as it was the appropriate place to do so, pointing out that the decision not to raise the objection regarding the competence of the petition at the tribunal was fatal. He said Agagu’s failure made him to lose his right to do so on appeal.

Justice Abdullahi said since Agagu did not complain at the election petition tribunal about the composition of the members of the tribunal, an issue the he brought on appeal, he could not raise the same issue at the appellate court because he had waived his right to do so.

On the claim by the appellant that his right was breached because, according to him, the tribunal sorted the used and unused ballot papers behind the parties in the disputed election, the appeal court said the claim was incorrect because the tribunal, on March 15, 2008, ordered that each of the parties in the case should send two persons to represent them in the sorting exercise. The court said the argument that the tribunal did the sorting suo moto was not untenable.

The Court of Appeal dismissed Agagu’s contention that the tribunal awarded seven local governments, namely Akoko South East, Akoko South West, Akure South, Idanre, Ondo East, Ondo West and Owo to Mimiko, saying that the appellant failed to contest the results in those areas at the tribunal and could not come now to challenge them on appeal.

The president of the court of appeal faulted the lower tribunal judges’ computation of results in three units in Akoko North East, but added that even if the results were correctly effected, it would not have affected the outcome of the entire results for Mimiko.

Mimiko’s victory…reactions…

According to Justice Abdullahi, oral and documentary evidence, which Mimiko presented at the lower tribunal, showed that violence and other forms of electoral irregularities marred the election.

He noted that evidence before the court showed a letter informing Agagu of the death of an undergraduate student of Mass Communication at Adekunle Ajasin University from gunshot injuries sustained while rigging election for Agagu and the reply from the Office of the Secretary to Ondo State Government that compensation would be paid to the family of the deceased student.

On the contentious issue of chart, the court said right from the inception of the petition down to the evidence adduced charts were used, pointing out that at the close of proceedings, Agagu supplied 61 charts for the tribunal to consider. The court also said the appellant used charts in his address.

The court, therefore, declared that it was reasonable for the tribunal to resolve the issues with charts, which the parties made the cornerstone of their case, saying they could not now complain about the charts.

With little adjustments and corrections to the results of the election, the court said the tribunal was right in declaring Mimiko winner because he scored 25 per cent of the valid votes cast in 12 out of the 18 local government areas of the state. The appellate court gave victory to Mimiko, saying that the LP candidate polled 195,030 votes while the PDP candidate scored 138,155 votes as against the 198,269 votes and 131,555 that the tribunal recorded in their judgment for the LP and PDP respectively.

Justice Abdullahi lambasted the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), advising them to remain neutral as an umpire.

Responding immediately after he was declared the governor of Ondo State, Dr. Mimiko said, “We thank God Almighty. We must also thank the President of Nigeria for allowing the judiciary to do its job this time. We thank the people of Ondo State and all well-wishers in Nigeria for standing by us in those very, very rugged times.

“We have demonstrated faith in the judiciary, faith in democracy. All I have to say is that I know I carry an unusual burden.”

Earlier, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), counsel to Agagu, thanked the justices of the appellate court for the efforts they put into the judgment, just as counsel to the PDP in Ondo State, Tunji Oyeyipo (SAN), said the judgment was most discerning and illuminating and that it would guide the conduct of future elections in the country.

On his part, Chief Wole Olanipekun, counsel to Mimiko, described the judgment as the best of the very best. He added that the judgment was a demonstration of the wishes of the people through the ballot box.

Justice Abdullahi, who would be retiring by November this year, told the senior counsels and other lawyers who participated in the election that the case was complex, but that the contributions of the lawyers made it much easier. Former Governor Olusegun Agagu, in his reaction to the judgment, said he had accepted the verdict of the court.

His Commissioner for Information, Orientation and Mobilisation, Chief Eddy Olafeso, who spoke for the former governor, said, “In this game, somebody must win and somebody must lose, but as a believer in the rule of law, we have accepted the verdict.

“Agagu will be remembered as the man that laid the solid foundation for the sustainable economic development of the state. His achievements will always be part of history in the state.”

In his response, Fagbemi (SAN), told the Nigerian Tribune on telephone that, “there is nothing anybody can do, that’s the decision of the court and it has become a law.”

Also, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said Monday’s judgment was capable of breeding tension and instability. PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Professor Rufai Ahmed Alkali, in a press statement, disclosed that the party received the judgment “with great shock” and expressed the concern of the party that the “trend” will not augur well for the sustenance of democracy in the country.

The statement read: “While our faith in the judiciary remains unwavering, we are deeply concerned with the trend of judgments some of which breed unnecessary tension and instability. It is our belief that the uncertainty that characterise some of these judgments do not augur well for the sustenance of our democracy.

“The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Prince Vincent Eze Ogbulafor, on behalf of the National Executive Committee (NEC) and the entire members of the PDP, is deeply touched by the loss of Ondo State, but calls on all our teeming supporters in the state to remain calm, law abiding and continue to support the Peoples Democratic Party, which remains the most formidable and purposeful political party in Nigeria.”

The party commended the former Governor Agagu, “for the years of selfless services he has offered the people of Ondo State,” assuring him of the party’s continued support in all his future endeavours.

PDP leaders and workers at the national secretariat in Abuja were seen in groups discussing the court ruling which has further depleted the number of states controlled by the party.

Leader of Afenifere, Pan-Yoruba political group, Chief Reuben Fasoranti, hailed the judgment, saying it reflected the expectation of the people.

He said, “I want to congratulate Mimiko, the judgment is what we expect, it is the wish of the people. We are happy for this country and the boldness of the judiciary, the judgment has rekindled the hope of the masses.”

In the same vein, the national chairman of the Democratic Peoples Alliance (DPA), Chief Olu Falae, said, “The wish of the people of the state has prevailed. It shows the way people voted. The crowd is intimidating, like what happened in Washington when Barrack Obama was sworn in.

“The people are very happy and expectant and hopeful that better days are here.”

Also reacting, the deputy governorship candidate of DPA in Ondo State, Chief Sola Ebiseni, said the verdict had further shown that the PDP was alien to the politics of the SouthWest.

He said, “The declaration of Dr. Mimiko as governor has clearly demonstrated that once the people of Ondo State have made up their mind as to whom they want to govern them, they stood by their mandate till the very end as exemplified by the way they stood by their mandate which they gave to Ajasin in 1983.

“It is now clear that the PDP is alien to the politics of the South West, it is the beginning of sweeping off of PDP from the SouthWest politics,” Ebiseni said.

The Progressive Coalition (PC), the body of all opposition parties and groups in Ondo State during the Agagu administration, has also hailed the judgment, saying it was the restoration of hope of the masses in the state.

It said “It is the restoration of the hope of the people and redemptive balm on the excruciating alienation of the people of the state after about six years in the throes of Agagu’s inflicted pains and labyrinth of economic hemorrhagic pillage. It’s a refreshing new day, pregnant with positive progressive possibilities,” the PC said.

“Ondo Progressives, in expressing happiness, wants to remind the Nigerians that the wheel of justice runs slowly but surely and it is catching up with electoral robbers in the land who, in treating the electoral process to such bizarre rape in April 2007, never envisaged the realism that they would have to relinquish such heist.

“We want to remind them that before our very eyes, such possibility has been unravelled and we believe that after nearly two years in the wilderness of darkness, Ondo State has entered into the Promised Land and the people’s mandate returned to the very people from whom it was violently stolen in April 2007.”

Reacting to the ruling, National Publicity Secretary of Action Congress (AC), Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the judgment was a victory for democracy and victory for Nigeria. “It is victory for democracy and victory for Nigeria and liberation for the people of Ondo State,” Mohammed said.

Hailing the judgment, one of the leaders of AC in the United Kingdom, Evangelist Segun Erinle, said the judgment would further restore the confidence of Nigerians in the democratic dispensation and it was a clear warning to all election riggers that rigging was not a good way to get into public office.

The AC Europe leader also commended Dr. Mimiko for his patience and urged him not to disappoint the people that voted him into office.

“We salute Dr. Mimiko for this triumph after a long-drawn battle, just as our congratulations go to the people of Ondo State whose resilience and enviable intolerance of opportunism has triumphed once again,” Erinle said.

Speaking in the same vein, former Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, said the judgment was a soothing balm for all progressive forces in Yorubaland, particularly that it was coming shortly after the nullification of Segun Oni’s election as Ekiti State governor.

“It’s the dawn of a new day for the electoral process in Yorubaland which has been bastardised in the last six years, particularly by the inglorious manipulator of the will of the Yoruba people, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.

“The verdict is a signal that the days of alien rule in this part of the country are gradually coming to an end. It is bye to the odious overriding influence of Obasanjo that has made nonsense of the right of the people to choose who should rule them.”

Odumakin explained that the task of remaking Ondo State was the challenge before Dr. Mimiko so as to bring about the much desired change which Ondo people have been denied by former Governor Agagu.

“We commend to him those epochal programmes enunciated by Awolowo on education, employment, health and integrated rural development, as a basis for moving the state forward, especially in this centenary year.

“Our message to our people is that this moment should be a defining one to make a covenant that never again shall we surrender our power (read vote) to any set of usurpers masquerading as politicians.”

Meanwhile, Mimiko, on Monday, ordered the freezing of the accounts of the state government. A statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the governor, Mr. Kolawole Olabisi, also warned commercial banks in the state against transacting any business with any government official.

The statement admonished civil servants to keep vigil over all government properties, funds and other valuables. He warned that all violators of these orders would be penalised.

Meanwhile, at least three people were feared dead in Akure in two separate accidents during the jubilation over the verdict of the court of appeal.

Two vehicles had a head-on collision at Adegbola Junction, leaving the occupants of the vehicles critically injured.

Also, two people sustained injuries while expressing their joy over the verdict while riding a motorcycle on Adegbola Street, Akure.

Another accident recorded at a bye-pass junction involved a BMW car, a commercial taxi and two other cars that were displayed for sale on Oyemekun Road, Akure.

A passenger that was said to have alighted from the taxi when the accident occurred was said to have been rushed to an undisclosed hospital as he was said to have been seriously injured.