While growing up in Okemesi-Ekiti, one of the stories my grandfather
told me was that of a certain bird. This bird, according to
grandfather will sing “hun o kuo ngbo yi” (I must leave this forest)
whenever it was hungry and could not find anything to eat. However,
the moment it was able to feed sufficiently, it will sing “Igbo yi dun
pupo” (this forest is very sweet).
The story of this double-speak bird came to my mind when I read a
statement by the APC, accusing the national leadership of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) of launching out on large-scale smear campaign
on the Nigerian judiciary.
The APC went on to say that the PDP was “casting aspersions on the
integrity of respected members of the bench whose only offence is that
their meticulous and balanced judgments have exposed PDP’s fraudulent
and violent escapades during the 2015 general elections.”
This, coming from a party that once accused judges of collecting N3
billion bribe to give judgment in favour of PDP cannot but be
laughable.
On December 19, 2014, the APC in Ekiti State, while rejecting the
tribunal judgment validating the election of Governor Ayodele Fayose
and casting aspersion on the integrity of the judiciary, said; “It is
worrisome that the judiciary appears not ready to tackle the flagrant
abuse of the courts by desperate politicians.”
In the double-faced political dictionary of the APC, saying that the
judiciary was not ready to tackle flagrant abuse of the courts would
be complimentary while the PDP complaints about miscarriage of justice
on Rivers and Akwa Ibom States would be derogatory.
In the past, APC in its desperation for power, did not only threaten
war against the judiciary, the party also threatened to turn Nigerians
to refugees in their own country with possible return of Operation
wetie witnessed in the Western Region in the mid-sixties.
A day to the June 21, 2014 Ekiti State Governorship election, APC
National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, at a press conference in
Lagos threatened war if the election was rigged and of course, the
only election that is not rigged is the one in which the APC emerges
the winner.
At the press conference attended by APC chieftains such as Rotimi
Amaechi, Senate President Bukola Saraki, Senator Osita Izunaso
(National Organising Secretary), Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, Chief
(Mrs.) Kemi Nelson (APC Women Leader), Alhaji Lai Mohammed (the
party’s spokesperson), among others, the party openly called for war
against the people of Ekiti State.
Chief Oyegun warned that the road being charted by the Federal
Government in handling today’s Ekiti State governorship poll, among
others, can lead to a repeat of Operation wetie in the Western Region
and would make every Nigerian a refugee if care is not taken.
When APC was known as Action Congress (AC) and later Action Congress
of Nigeria (ACN), the judiciary was openly blackmailed, ridiculed and
some cases compromised by the party in the Southwest.
For instance, when the Justice Hamma Barka-led tribunal in Ekiti State
gave its majority judgment in favour of the PDP in 2010, the ACN used
one of its agents of media terrorism, Sahara Reporters to accuse the
judges of receiving N3 billion bribe. The N3 billion cash was claimed
to have been transported to Ogere Toll Gate, Lagos-Ibadan expressway
where it was changed to dollars!
On May 5, 2010, Prof Itse Sagay, a notable apologist of the APC
described the judgment of the Ekiti State Governorship Election
Petition Tribunal as a disgrace.
He said; “The verdict is a disgrace. I watched part of the tribunal’s
proceedings on television, when I saw the way the judge was going,
puncturing the case of the petitioner, it was clear to me that the
Action Congress would not get justice.”
In June 2010, Sunday Akere, who was then the Osun State ACN Director
of Research and Strategy reacted to the State governorship election
tribunal judgment saying; “We, the Osun AC, came to seek equity at the
tribunal with clean hands. But what we got is a shame and a blot on
the integrity of the Nigerian judiciary. It is shameful that a panel
of five judges could sit down and write such an incoherent judgment.”
In his own reaction to the judgment, Governor Rauf Aregbesola, who was
the ACN governorship candidate said; “The judgment is dubious,”
meaning that the tribunal judges were themselves dubious because only
dubious judges could give dubious judgments.
Instead of robbing themselves in the garment of sainthood and
presenting themselves as defenders of the judiciary, the APC and its
multiple-mouth leaders should rather concentrate on their dubious use
of a section of the judiciary to manipulate themselves to power as
they have done before; and leave posterity to judge who the real
friend of our judiciary is.
Olayinka is the Special Assistant on Public Communications and New
Media to the Ekiti State Govern
