Ikpeazu: Appeal Court Rebukes Abang, Says He Raped Democracy

The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Thursday
delivered a stringent rebuke of Justice Okon
Abang of the Federal High Court for his ruling
annulling the election of Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu of
Abia, accusing the judge of “raping democracy”.

Gov. Ikpeazu was “sacked” on June 27. Justice
Abang said he had falsified his tax certificates, and
must lose his seat to Samson Ogah, also a
member of the Peoples Democratic Party.

Mr. Ogah received the certificate of return from the
Independent National Commission, but was not
sworn in.

At the Court of Appeal on Thursday, a five-
member panel led by Justice Morenike
Ogunwumiju said Mr. Abang “raped democracy”
when he ordered INEC to issue a certificate of
return to Mr. Ogah without evidence of forgery
against Mr. Ikpeazu.

 
According to the court, the judgement was
erroneously based on the inadequacy of tax receipt
which Mr. Ikpeazu cannot be blamed for.

 
“After reading through the judgement several
times, I was amazed at how the trial Judge arrived
at his conclusion of forgery against the appellant
when there was no evidence of forgery. To say the
least, his findings are ridiculous,” said Justice
Ogunwumiju.

 
The court said Mr. Abang embarked on a “wild
goose chase” when he attempted to help the
plaintiff.

Ms. Ogunwunmiju said the case was not properly
filed in the first instance.

While the law says only an identifiable legal
practitioner can attest to a motion instituting a case
before the lower court, three lawyers signed for the
plaintiff.

“But on the motion which led to this appeal three
people indicated themselves as lawyers and signed
the document. It is not the business of the court to
embark on a voyage of helping a litigant decide
who filed his case,” the court said.

“The judge must have sat in his
chamber, unilaterally assessed and computed the
tax of the appellant and came to the conclusion that
he did not pay the required tax. But let me say that
courts are not allowed to speculate as the trial
Judge has done in the instant case.

“The trial judge spoke from both sides of his mouth
when in one breadth, he claimed that he based his
findings on supply of false information and in
another breadth, he came to the conclusion that the
appellant in this matter committed perjury, even
when there was no allegation of forgery and no
allegation that he did not pay tax,” the court further
said.

Ms. Ogunwumiju also said that Justice Abang
turned the head of the law upside down in his
conclusion that it was Mr. Ikpeazu that should bear
the burden of proof for an allegation made by Mr.
Ogah.

“With respect, we disagree with him in this
conclusion because it is the person that makes
allegation of falsehood that must prove it,” she
said.

The Appeal Court also argued that Mr. Abang erred
when he imported the phrase “as at when due” into
the PDP 2014 guidelines.

“The judge would not have imported the phrase into
his findings if he had seen the copy of the PDP
guideline. In this case, he violated the PDP
guideline.

“From whatever angle one looks at the judgement
of the trial Judge, the decision of his court was
grossly erroneous. The inadequacies of the tax
receipt cannot be visited on Ikpeazu who scored the
highest votes in the 2015 governorship elections as
doing so will amount To Molest of democracy,” the
court held.

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