AGF to Ikpeazu, Ogah: wait for courts’ decisions

Abia State Governor Okezie Ikpeazu is to remain in office pending the outcome of his appeal against last week’s decision of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, which declared him ineligible for the Peoples  Democratic Party (PDP) ticket with which he contested last year’s general election.

Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami (SAN) yesterday advised that all the parties should wait for the outcome of the appeal before any action is taken.

Following Justice Okon Abang’s order, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in compliance with the “forthwith” order of the court, issued a certificate of return to Dr. Uchechukwu Ogah, the plaintiff favoured by the judgment, which found the governor guilty of tax certificate deficiencies.

Ogah then proceeded to Umuahia to press for his swearing in but Chief Judge was unavailable, thereby creating a political stalemate in the state.

The Attorney General distanced himself from the controversy in a statement yesterday by Salihu Isah, his media assistant. Malami, who advised parties to the crisis to await the final resolution of the dispute by the courts, said he was yet to offer any legal opinion on the issue because no one has sought his opinion.

The AGF faulted insinuations that his office was prompted by the Federal Government to advise INEC to issue Ogah with a certificate of return.

The statement said: “The attention of the office of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice has been drawn to the insinuations and crass lies being peddled and disseminated by a cross-section of Nigerians and the various media platforms that the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation is behind the legal logjam over the Abia State governorship seat and wishes to clarify that those canvassing this position have no basis to do so.

“Of particular concern are those who have peddled ill-natured rumours with a view to misinform our discerning populace that it was the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and, by extension, the Federal Government of Nigeria that gave directives to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to issue Certificate of Return to Dr. Uchechukwu Ogah declaring him governor-elect.

“He has definitely not taken any action either by spoken words or body language as far as this Abia governorship crisis is concerned.

“I wish to, therefore, on behalf of my principal, declare that these rumours are untrue and a figment of the imagination of those pushing these selfish, shameless and irredeemable lies into public space which only translates to partisanship on the side of its purveyors. ”As far as the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation is concerned, the constitutional powers for the legal opinion of his office have not been invoked on this issue. So far, nobody has approached him to proffer any legal opinion to it.

“As a strong believer in the rule of law, it is his belief that the law should naturally take its cause. The Honourable Attorney General of the Federation will not be dragged into this controversy and mind-games being played out by the various legal minds and spin doctors of both camps at this point. The parties involved should await the decision of the courts.

“In fact, we wish to by this statement advise those in the habit of dragging the highly esteemed office of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice into knotty issues of this kind, even when it is yet to take a position, to desist from these unwarranted presumptions henceforth.”