INEC and Imo north senatorial bye-election fallout

BY OSELOKA ZIKORA

The Imo North Senatorial Bye-Election has witnessed a lot of drama especially as it concerns who the candidate of the All Progressive Congress was. Various APC aspirants have taken to the courts to settle the dust raised by contentious primaries mired in controversies. Unfortunately, the courts instead of dousing the fire, seemed to have put more thongs in hearth. At the heart of the inferno are two conflicting court judgements that has left INEC confused as to who to return as the Senator Elect for the zone.

This indecisive action of INEC has led to several speculations and spins of false narratives leaving the Imo North electorate and many political watchers in limbo. While the APC hierarchy insists that Sir Frank Ibezim remains the party’s bonafide candidate and therefore the Senator Elect, the camp of Sen. Ifeanyi Ararume claims the mandate given to APC on the basis of a Federal High Court Abuja judgement disqualifying Ibezim. Ibezim supporters however point to the Federal Court of Appeal judgement reinstating him as the authentic APC candidate. The PDP on the other hand is asking INEC to declare its candidate who came second in the election winner arguing that the APC by virtue of the conflicting court judgements does not have a candidate.

Looking at the conflicting claims, it is imperative somewhat to sift through the melee and bring out the facts. First, let’s examine the claims by some of the aspirants who contested the Imo North APC primaries. At the crux of the controversies is the claim that Sir Frank Ibezim was disqualified from contesting the party’s primaries by the Screening Committee. The party has however countered those claims by insisting that the Screening Committee is an ad hoc Committee with no authority to disqualify any aspirant; that the party’s constitution hands such powers to the National Working Committee, a role now performed by the Gov. Buni led Caretaker Committee and Extra-Ordinary Convention Planning Committee. Some documents sighted by this writer indicate that the Caretaker Committee discountenanced the recommendations of the Screening Committee and gave the greenlight to all the aspirants to contest the primaries.

So the argument that Sir Frank Ibezim did not contest and win the APC Imo North bye-election party primaries does not hold water. The real challenge for Ibezim however, was that his main challenger, Sen. Ifeanyi Ararume had laid some judicial landmines for him. Ararume had scored a hat trick with a controversial judgement by the Federal High Court Owerri mandating INEC to replace Ibezim’s name with that of Ararume. Matters were made somewhat tricky for Ibezim with another controversial judgement by Justice Inyang Ekwo disqualifying him from contesting the election on the eve of the election. Fortunes though smiled on him later the same day when a three-member Federal Court Appeal Panel quashed the Federal High Court Owerri judgement, and directed INEC to reinstate him on the ballot.

Perhaps that’s where the macabre dance got more perplexing for the umpire. All the court cases involving the APC candidate would have become an academic exercise but for the fact that APC won the December 5th bye-election throwing INEC in a dilemma as to who to return as the duly elected Senator for Imo North. Legal pundits however say that INEC’s position in not returning Ibezim is untenable as he remains the only candidate of the APC who can claim to have participated in all stages of the election. According to the 4th alteration to the 1999 Nigerian Constitution amending portions of Section 185, “An election tribunal or court shall not declare any person a winner at an election in which such a person has not fully participated in all stages of the election.” To this school of thought, Ararume’s candidature expired the moment the Federal Court of Appeal took him out of the ballot. The claim by INEC Commissioner, Barr. Festus Okoye that Ararume is still in contention by virtue that he had filed a notice of Appeal against the Appeal Court judgement before the election date is moot. It is trite law that a mere notice of appeal does not stay the execution of a subsisting judgement.

Ibezim therefore remains the only candidate that can rescue the APC mandate. Though the Federal High Court Abuja disqualified Ibezim from contesting the election on the eve of the election, Ibezim’s reprieve lay in the fact that a superior Court of Appeal reinstated him on the ballot hours later. Although some counter that the Court of Appeal did not address the issue of qualification while reinstating Ibezim. Be that as it may, INEC remains duty bound to obey the superior court’s order as that was the last judicial pronouncement on Ibezim’s candidature. If INEC so wishes, it can then approach the courts for further clarifications on the issue. That though may not be necessary given that Ibezim is already in the Appeal Court challenging the issue in question. Nevertheless, since these are pre-election court matters which final adjudication usually end in the Supreme Court, INEC in the meantime has no option than to follow the law and return Ibezim as the Senator Elect.

This is because there can only be two outcomes from the current impasse. One outcome is that Ibezim quashes the lower court’s judgement against him at the remaining levels of adjudication, and thus retains his status as winner of the bye-election. Conversely he fails to discharge the judgement which is rather unlikely, and in that case, the PDP candidate who came second benefits from such a misfortune. Neither of the scenarios will benefit Ararume simply because the Supreme Court’s power to declare him the winner is ousted by the section 185 amendment provided in the 4th Alteration to the 1999 constitution.

So how will the impasse play out? I am not a prophet but from all evidence concerning Ibezim’s qualification to contest for senate, he will no doubt get sworn into the red chamber to finish the term which became vacant following the demise of Senator Benjamin Uwajumogu. Why do I predict so is that the presumed Senator Elect, Ibezim has all the requisite qualifications to contest. That perhaps is the reason why his party was confident to present him as its candidate.

Oseloka Zikora, a public affairs analyst, writes from Abuja