BREAKING NEWS, Politics
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The violent clashes which erupted after decision of the Taraba State elections petition tribunal, which sacked Governor Darius Ishaku of Taraba State from office on Saturday, November 7, is now under control, even as All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party continue their blame game
SANITY appears to have returned to Wukari area of Taraba State after about 10 people were killed during a clash between supporters of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Sunday, November, 8. The trouble occurred barely 24 hours after the Taraba State elections petition tribunal nullified the election of Governor Darius Ishaku, on Saturday, November 7.
Taraba is one of the northern states that has witnessed high amount of ethno-religious crisis in the last few years, with Wukari being a major spot for violence.
Reports said the crisis on Sunday, November 8, started following celebrations and protests for and against the court ruling, delivered in favour of Aisha Alhassan, APC governorship candidate and minister designate.
Joseph Kwaji, Taraba State Police public relations officer, confirmed the incident, saying soldiers and a detachment of police officers from the state command and other neighbouring divisions were promptly deployed to the town.
Kwaji said the crisis started on Saturday night when some supporters of the APC were going round celebrating the judgment of the tribunal and they had a clash with the PDP supporters.
“The situation has been brought under control by the prompt intervention of the combined team of police and soldiers drafted to the town and normalcy has returned to the area. I cannot give you the number of casualty now because investigations are still ongoing to ascertain the number,” he said.
The Taraba election tribunal, had on Saturday, nullified the election of Ishaku mainly on the grounds that the PDP primary that produced him was held after the deadline approved by the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, and, therefore, his candidacy was illegal. The tribunal ordered that Alhassan be sworn in as governor.
The PDP and Ishaku have, however, indicated their intention to challenge the ruling at the Court of Appeal. The Electoral Act allows the incumbent office holder to file an appeal within 21 days at the same time retaining the contested seat.
In any case, the PDP said the tribunal judgement in favour of Alhassan was another evidence of executive interference in the judiciary.
The party said the reason given by the tribunal for arriving at the bizarre decision was intriguing and further exposed the contradictions and double standards inherent in most tribunal rulings against the PDP interests recently.
Olisa Metuh, spokesman of the PDP, said in a statement on Saturday that the Taraba State tribunal ruling again brought to the fore the organised plan by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC federal government to deploy all unorthodox means to decimate the opposition.
“It is rather curious and a great conflict of irony that the Taraba tribunal sitting in Abuja on security grounds faulted the conduct of the PDP primaries shifted to the same Abuja on security reasons,” the party stressed.
The PDP said if the tribunal was faulting the party primaries as basis for its decision, it then means that no APC gubernatorial candidate could stand the test, as their party never had acceptable primaries in any of its states.
The PDP has a supporter in the Centre for Human Rights and Social Justice, CHRSJ, which similarly condemned the tribunal judgement, saying it was bias and unacceptable. The group said that the outcome of the tribunal ruling had put the integrity of the judiciary in doubt as the last hope of commoners, saying that the one-sided ruling would not stand the test of time in the nation democratic process.
The CHRSJ described the judgment as unlawful, illegal, anathema, anti-masses, unconstitutional and invitation to chaos in all ramifications from the masses of the state.
In a statement signed by Alimi Suliaman Adeniji, executive chairman, the CHRSJ, said the organisation would mobilise its members across to prepare for a national peaceful street protest to save the “nation’s democracy against undemocratic nature of the present administration in the land so as to save the nation from impeding political crisis that might the country.”
However, the APC has denied any involvement of the Presidency and the party in the tribunal’s ruling, saying it was another clear indication yet that the PDP had started harvesting what it sewed in its years of “impunity and recklessness,” and that it should blame itself for whatever tragedy that had now befallen it.
In a statement issued by Lai Mohammed, its national publicity, in Lagos on Sunday, November 8, the party said the PDP had always been a party of anything goes, hence it was a matter of time for the party to come to grief, first by tumbling from the pinnacle of power and now by losing, incrementally, whatever remained of its crumbled empire.
Mohammed said the PDP was only trifling by attributing the judgement to a supposed manipulation from the Presidency.
“The PDP should leave the judiciary, the Presidency and the APC alone and accept responsibility for its actions. From the judgement of the Tribunal, it is clear that the impunity of the PDP cost it the election. Not only did the party breach Section 78 (b) (1) (2) of the Electoral Act concerning the organization of party primaries, it was not even deemed to have participated in the April 11th 2015 governorship election in Taraba State in the eyes of the law.
“Apart from not complying with the Electoral Act, the election of the PDP candidate, Mr. Darius Ishaku, in the purported primaries in Abuja was done after the stipulated time for party primaries had elapsed, according to the Tribunal. It is thus clear that the election result in Taraba was not annulled for any other reason but the impunity and recklessness that permeated the life and times of the cadaverous PDP,” the statement said.
The APC said it was not the first time the court would rule against the PDP’s impunity of violating its own constitutional provisions and the Electoral Act with regards to ensuring internal democracy in the conduct of primary elections.
“The first landmark judgment came from the Supreme Court when it ruled against the PDP’s impunity in 2007 and ordered that Rotimi Amaechi be installed as Governor of Rivers instead of Celestine Omehia who was illegally imposed. Secondly, the Supreme Court had also ruled against PDP in the case of Ifeanyi Ararume when the party took his mandate as validly elected Governorship candidate and handed it over to another aspirant.
“It is instructive to note that these judgments took place while the PDP was in control of the Presidency. The opposition parties then never questioned the integrity of the judiciary by making wild and weighty allegations as the PDP is doing now,” it said.
The APC also said that the PDP should blame itself for its gross impunity with regards to the conduct of primary elections for Taraba State.
— Nov 9, 2015 @ 15:40 GMT
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