SAN FRANCISCO, July 04, (THEWILL) – The Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF, and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami SAN, has told parties involved in the legal crisis rocking Abia State to await the decision of the various courts that are adjudicating on the matter, revealing that none of the disputants has sought his opinion.
A Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja had last week nullified the election of Okezie Ikpeazu as the governor of the state on the ground that he presented forged tax papers to his party during the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, primaries that returned him as the party’s candidate for the 2015 gubernatorial election.
The court presided over by Justice Okon Abang subsequently declared Ogah, who was the first runner-up in the primaries, as the rightful candidate of the party and ordered INEC to issue him a certificate of return.
But the incumbent Governor blocked the inauguration of Ogah with a court order he obtained from a state High Court, restraining the latter from being sworn-in as the governor of the state pending the determination of a substantive suit brought before him by the embattled governor.
Reacting in a statement in Abuja on Sunday by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Salihu Isah, the AGF said the matter was now before the courts and the best thing in the circumstances was to allow the judiciary to resolve the matter one way or the other.
The minister also said that neither he nor the federal government instructed the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to issue a certificate of return to Dr Uchechukwu Ogah, even as he debunked media reports that he was behind the legal stalemate over the Abia state governorship seat.
The statement reads: “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 (sic) those who have peddled ill-natured rumours with a view to misinform our discerning populace that 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 translate 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 issue of this kind even when it is yet to take a position. They should desist from these unwarranted presumptions henceforth,” he warned.
