‘OGA AND MADAM AT THE TOP SACKED AMAECHI-BACKED EXCO’

Less
than 24 hours after an Abuja High Court upheld the election of Felix Obuah as
the chairman of the Rivers State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),
the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party Tuesday swore in the faction
as the authentic and duly recognised state executive.

This is just as federal legislators loyal to the Rivers State
Governor, Chibuike Amaechi, who by the ruling effectively lost the party’s
structures in the state, have blamed the judgment leading to the sack of the
state PDP executive backed by the governor on “Oga and madam at the top”.

Amaechi on Monday suffered a major setback when the state
executive of the PDP that he installed but led by Chief Godspower Akeh was
removed by a high court presided over by Justice Ishaq Bello.

Justice Bello approved the election of a parallel executive led
by Obuah, but which owes its allegiance to a faction backed by the Minister of
State for Education, Nyeson Wike. Before they fell out, Wike was once Amaechi’s
chief of staff.

Based on the ruling, the PDP political leadership in Rivers
State was yanked from Amaechi and transferred to Wike.

The swearing-in of Obuah and Walter Ibibia Opoene as chairman
and secretary was carried out by the National Legal Adviser of the PDP, Mr.
Victor Kwom, and notarised by Mr. Emeka Etiaba.

Other members of the state executive were also sworn in at a
ceremony witnessed by all members of the party’s NWC and members of the PDP
from the state chapter.

They included Wike, Sergeant Awuse, Senator Lee Meaba, and
former deputy speaker, House of Representatives, Austin Opara, among others.

Before their swearing-in, the PDP acting National Secretary, Mr.
Onwe Solomon Onwe, confirmed that they had been served the court order and
their assumption of office was in line with the judgment.

However, at a press conference addressed by the leader of the
Rivers State National Assembly Caucus, Hon. Asita Honourable, and other members
of the caucus, the legislators expressed shock at the declarative judgment,
which included a perpetual injunction against the Akeh-led executive stopping
them from challenging the ruling.

Honourable, who was surrounded by Austin Wokocha, Chidi Wihioka,
Andrew Uchendu, Emmanuel Chinda, Zaari George and Sokonte Davis, called the new
executive members of the state PDP imposters who have openly boasted of having
the support of “Oga and madam at the top”.

“They did not even purchase nomination forms nor were they
anywhere near the venue of the PDP state congresses on the date in question,”
the legislators alleged.

They said the “ruling by Justice Bello was in spite of the
avowals of the national secretariat of the party as to who, by all the records
available to it, were the duly elected state executive committee members of the
party in Rivers State and who they had inaugurated and accredited as bona fide
delegates to the national convention of the party and dealt with on all party
matters.

“This point was so lucidly canvassed by the party before the
judge who closed his eyes and chose for himself who should run the PDP in
Rivers State.”

According to Honourable, “That the trial judge could with
temerity turn down a report from INEC which monitored the elections as
prescribed by the Electoral Act and as an unbiased umpire recognised who won
the March 17, 2012 state PDP Congress in Rivers State, is condemnable.”

They expressed surprise that a high court of a state could
assume jurisdiction on a matter involving a federal government agency – INEC,
adding “that the presiding judge could delve into intra-party matters even in
the face of a preponderance of decisions of various courts on such matters and
in this instance which the matter was, by trial judge’s admission, was already
statute barred.”

Honourable said they were more shocked that the presiding judge
heard and determined the heavily contentious issues of facts by originating
summons without calling for oral evidence to test the veracity of the
witnesses.

They therefore declared the ruling a travesty of justice and
broad day light judicial robbery, which “leaves much to be imagined and casts
doubts in our minds over the talk about reforms in the judiciary now ably
championed by the respected Chief Justice of Nigeria and the National Judicial
Council.”

The legislators however appealed for calm in the state, saying,
“We want to use this medium to urge all Rivers people and especially our party
members to remain calm while we take steps to exhaust all legal avenues open to
us. This injustice will surely not stand the test of time as the triumph of
evil over good is usually temporary.”

The state government also condemned the court ruling, which
removed Akeh as the chairman of the PDP in the state.

The state Commissioner for Information and Communication, Mrs.
Ibim Semenitari, in her reaction in Port Harcourt Tuesday, described the ruling
as an abuse of court process. She also said the judgment was unacceptable and a
miscarriage of justice.

“How can the court give leadership of the party to someone who
did not even purchase a form for the position?” she queried.

She said the PDP congress that brought Akeh to office was well
attended by over 2,000 delegates, adding that members of the party in the state
“would not sit down and fold their arms and allow the injustice.”

Semenitari said: “Clearly there is oppression going on. I
believe as a member of PDP in the state who voted at the congress, I am very
upset that anybody will say that my voice will not count.

“I think that if I feel this way, every other PDP member in the
state will feel the same way because we cannot imagine that somebody will come
and foist on us a man who neither took a form nor was present at the election.

“I do not know where this happens in any part of the world. It
is a shame. It is an embarrassment. It is unthinkable that this will still
happen in today’s world when we are talking about a democracy. It is especially
shocking when the party is talking about reconciliation.”

She however disagreed with
insinuations that President Goodluck Jonathan might have influenced the
judgment.
“I do not believe that Mr. President will lend himself to such grave injustice.
I do not believe that Mr. President will be part of this kind of undemocratic
thing.

“I do not believe that Mr. President, who himself is a product
of democracy and who received about two million votes from Rivers State, will
be part of this travesty of justice. I do not believe Mr. President will like
to kill PDP in Rivers State. So I don’t think President Jonathan is involved,”
she stated.

Meanwhile, when THISDAY visited the PDP Secretariat in Port
Harcourt Tuesday, the place was deserted and most of the offices were locked.

The only person in the office was a security guard who said none
of the officers had been in the office since the judgment.

“They have not come back from Abuja. May be, they will come
tomorrow (Wednesday). That is when we will know what is happening,” said the
security man who would not disclose his name.