Imo State Information Commissioner, Prof Nnamdi Obaireri at the weekend took to the social media to explain why Senator Osita Izunaso’s appeal against the election of Barr Emma Ibediro will not stand.
Ibediro defeated Izunaso to emerge the new National Organizing Secretary of the party.
Part of his statement reads:
The newly elected National Officers led by the new National Chairman Comrade ADAMS ALIYU OSHIOMOLE have since assumed their offices.
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The dust raised by the 2018 APC NATIONAL CONVENTION has since settled down except that a handful of Imo State born aggrieved handlers of Senator Izunaso who lost the National Organising Secretary election by a wide margin to Barr Emma Ibediro have taken to the media to proclaim that they petitioned the Senator Ken Nnamani led Congress Election Appeal Committee as well as threatened to approach the courts.
Their grouse or complaint is the allegation that delegates from some states were disenfranchised from voting by the National Convention Committee although they have not shown how that will upturn Hon. Barr Ibediro’s victory as National Organising Secretary which is in the bag already.
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This appeal and threat to sue by the self-styled “IMO STATE APC STAKEHOLDERS FORUM” is unnecessary and at best a futile face saving effort because the same Senator Izunaso’s handlers admit that from the result duly declared at that NATIONAL CONVENTION, Barr Ibediro has a clear lead and wide margin of victory because he garnered lawful majority votes cast at the election.
They agree that Hon Barr Ibediro scored 1749 votes while the incumbent Senator Izunaso trailed with 1459 votes leaving a whooping difference of two hundred and ninety votes.
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What then are Senator Izunaso’s handlers looking for from the Appeal Committee as they do not contend that the result already declared by the Governor Badaru led 2018 National Convention Committee in respect of the National Organising Secretary position is incorrect?
They say they want the Appeal Committee to order fresh voting to be conducted for delegates from Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Abia, Adamawa, Jigawa and Imo even when they know that the National Convention has ended and the National Convention stand Committee formally dissolved since 24 June 2018.
*Well, politicians are incurable optimists and often times demand the impossible but desperation is no durable strategy!*
Even as the dissatisfied Senator Izunaso and his distraught handlers are busy thinking that they can ask the Convention Election Appeal Committee to wake up the dead and buried, they must note the following recondite points and unassailable positions of the law which serve as a permanent bar to their requests or prayers in their appeal-
1. Under the APC Constitution as amended, the said Convention Appeal Committee has no power to convene a NATIONAL CONVENTION or to reconvene a closed NATIONAL CONVENTION. The 2018 APC NATIONAL CONVENTION has come and gone forever.
2. The Appeal Committee has no power in itself to conduct any election or supplementary election into any office or offices since it is not a NATIONAL CONVENTION Committee which said 2018 NATIONAL CONVENTION. Committee has since been dissolved on 24 June 2018. Election of National Officers is a business of the NATIONAL CONVENTION.
3. In view of accusations and counter accusations about what led to the alleged disenfranchisement of some of the delegates, the Appeal Committee cannot unilaterally make a finding as to why the said delegates were allegedly disenfranchised unless and until it takes evidence from the 2018 National Convention Committee itself. Coincidentally, the said 2018 National Convention Committee that exercised its discretion to announce the result without factoring in the disputed votes is no longer in existence as it has been duly dissolved by the National Convention.
4. Assuming without conceding, and even in the unlikely event that the Appeal Committee makes a finding that some delegates from the affected states were disenfranchised for no just cause, excuse or reason by the defunct NATIONAL CONVENTION Committee, the present Appeal Committee does not possess the power to organise a fresh or supplementary election for the affected delegates since the 2018 NATIONAL CONVENTION has formally ended.
Every eligible delegate must vote at the NATIONAL CONVENTION venue.
Election and voting by delegates at a National Convention is sui generis with special rules.
It is not a private election and no proxy voting or voting outside the National Convention arena or when the National Convention has ended is allowed.
5. The law is that he who alleges must prove.
Therefore, the heavy onus or burden of proof is on Senator Izunaso’s handlers to show in sync with their petition that all or a majority of the allegedly disenfranchised delegates would have voted for Senator Izunaso and not Barr Ibediro since both of them are from the same Imo State and that this would make a significant difference in the outcome of the result as already declared. This is a tall order.
Against the foregoing backdrop, we opine strongly that the purported appeal is a complete waste of time, an exercise in futility and voyage of discovery as the Appeal Panel cannot conduct a fresh or supplementary election itself or order the dissolved NATIONAL CONVENTION Committee to conduct election or reconvene the delegates that are already in their homes after the CONVENTION had ended officially.
Going by the dry and express letters of the APC Constitution as amended, the NATIONAL CONVENTION is the highest decision making body of the party.
The NATIONAL CONVENTION is not convened as a matter of pleasure or at the beck and call of any official or officer.
Extant jurisprudence and judicial decisions by the Supreme Court, being the apex court of law and policy, clearly evince that it takes another fresh or new NATIONAL CONVENTION to overturn the decision taken at an earlier NATIONAL CONVENTION.
Therefore, lawful decisions of the 2018 APC NATIONAL CONVENTION are sacrosanct. No organ or official of the party can overturn or overrule the decision of the NATIONAL CONVENTION.
In real legal terms, the 2018 NATIONAL CONVENTION Committee alongside other Committees set up under them having been dissolved is now defunct and functus officio just like the Oyegun led National Executive is now consigned to the dustbin of history following its due dissolution upon effluxion of time.
Conclusively, the grim reality is that Senator Izunaso’s and his handlers are asking for the practically impossible and legally impermissible.
It is over for good as Hon Barr Chief Emma Ibediro won the election clean and clear!
