Nigeria's Supreme Court has annulled April's election of the governor of oil-rich, violence-prone Rivers State. The court said current Governor Celestine Omehia had not been the legitimate candidate of the governing People's Democratic Party. It ruled that the post should go to Rotimi Amaechi, who won the party's primaries, but was dropped on the eve of voting because of graft allegations. Troops have been deployed in the state capital in case of violence. Read More!









Yes! We've finally arrived! There seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel!

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Hell no! we have just gone ten steps backwards! Rotimi Amaechi and his mentor Odili robbed Rivers state blind. He is a thief and posterity will judge them all. I am so pained about the way Rivers State has turned out. Potentially the richest state in Nigeria, but what do we have to show for it.
nonsense and ingredients...

very good , i also want the same done in Abia state

and with the way things are going I foresee an annulment of the presidential election

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SOMETIMES IT IS HARD TO SEE THE PLACE,GOD HAS CALLED YOU AS A PLACE OF BLESSING, BUT THATS WHEN YOU'VE GOT TO HOLD ON AND TRUST THE PROCESS
PEOPLE TEND TO DRAW OTHERS BACK FROM THINGS THEY SECRETLY WOULD HAVE LOVED TO DO BUT ARE NOT CAPABLE OR DARING ENOUGH TO DO
THEY WILL ALWAYS TALK BUT YOUR CHOICE IN WHO YOU LISTEN TO IS WHAT MATTERS......

I hope this is just the beginning of many more to come. Let them remove all the dubious ones.

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Psalm 34 vrs. 19
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him from them all.

Abia might probably be affected by the sweeping changes initiated by the judiciary which has,to God be the glory,turned out to be the saviour of our acute constipating democracy.
The presidential election would not be annulled because the opposition is a divided house where most of the ones that would have challanged the election seems to have resolved that Yar'dua is a good man that was produced by a bad election
Meanwhile,this judgement would certainly breed violence because,instead of calling for fresh elections,the court argued that Omehia should step down for Amaechi which would mean that PDP still won the election.Port-harcourt has been in the news lately as a den of thugs and native cultists playing in the hand of politicians who would not hesitate to use them once again.

in regards to the presidential election .....if we were to go by facts Buhari has enough evidence that can overturn the result. He has tendered the proof showing that the result sheets were already prepared and signed a day before the conduct of the election and i must say his making progress because the president and his vice lost out in the bid to discredit the evidence.

I feel there should be a fresh election. Yar adua is indecisive and perhaps too slow for a country like Nigeria. We need a honest , fearless and energetic leader

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SOMETIMES IT IS HARD TO SEE THE PLACE,GOD HAS CALLED YOU AS A PLACE OF BLESSING, BUT THATS WHEN YOU'VE GOT TO HOLD ON AND TRUST THE PROCESS
PEOPLE TEND TO DRAW OTHERS BACK FROM THINGS THEY SECRETLY WOULD HAVE LOVED TO DO BUT ARE NOT CAPABLE OR DARING ENOUGH TO DO
THEY WILL ALWAYS TALK BUT YOUR CHOICE IN WHO YOU LISTEN TO IS WHAT MATTERS......

If the truth must be told,there are other governors that should face the same judgement!

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..To the one who spoke and the galaxies leapt into existence....who can't be explained on a chalkboard but can be accessed through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ.....whose word never returns to him void but accomplishes the purpose for which it is sent.....the one in whom I am complete.....the great I am...who was,who is and who is to come....
www.ifreke.blogspot.com

Which one of the two is the dubious one?The incumbent or the one accused of grafting?

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Justice delayed is not justice denied !

Why should Rotimi Amaechi be the next governor, he DID NOT stand for elections! The least they could do was call for fresh elections but they have decided to go down this dodgy route. God dey!

I am shocked that Nigerians almost always stay on sensationalism.Somebody who DID NOT contest an election is called to take-over and we are jubiliating.What of the contention of other parties that PDP rigged the election?
Even if there is no other party challenging that election,what the supreme court should have done is to use the observation that Amaechi was wrongly disqualified as a yardstick for annuling that election entirely.
This remains my humble opinion and i fear for more crazy judgements from our apex court

He did contest for the elections, but the PDP unceremoniously and wrongly removed his name from the ballot close to the election, because they fell out with him.

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Even as fresh questions are being raised over last week’s judgment by the Supreme Court which led to the removal of Sir Celestine Omehia as the Governor of Rivers State and the swearing-in of Hon. Rotimi Amaechi as his replacement, indications emerged at the weekend on what might have
informed the apex court’s decision.

Highly-placed sources told THISDAY last night that the Supreme Court justices refrained from ordering fresh elections in the state because they feared that the PDP might bar Amaechi from contesting. He had been expelled by the party for resorting to legal action after his controversial substitution by the PDP on February 2, 2007.
The party did not state reasons for his disqualification then, although it was annou-nced at the Court of Appeal last month that Amaechi’s disqualification was based on an indictment by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
But the EFCC indictment came on February 20, two weeks after Amaechi’s substitution.

“The Supreme Court justices were wary of a situation similar to the Ifeanyi Araraume case in Imo State when the PDP disobeyed its ruling that he was the authentic candidate of the party for the governorship election,” the source said.

The PDP had substituted Araraume with Engr. Charles Ugwuh as its candidate, but the Supreme Court ruled that the substitution did not fulfill the requirements of the 2006 Electoral Act, which stated that “cogent and verifiable reasons” must be given for the substitution of candidates.

The party subsequently expelled Araraume and withdrew from the governorship race in the state by failing to field any candidate.

“The Supreme Court believed that the PDP wilfully disobeyed its judgment by failing to field Araraume under a guise, and it clearly did not want a situation where its ruling would be wilfully disobeyed through some other manipulations. That is why it stated unequivocally that Amaechi was the candidate and should be sworn in,” the source explained.

Lagos-based lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN), however disagrees with the Supreme Court over its ruling. Fawehinmi, in a press statement made available to THISDAY yesterday, said the order “installing Amaechi who never contested the governorship election as governor of River State” was wrong.
According to the radical lawyer, the assumption of office by Amaechi is a “judicial imposition” on the Rivers State people who he said did not vote for Amaechi on April 14, 2007.

Fawehinmi said: “I have no quarrel with the decision of the Supreme Court in so far as it nullified the election of Celestine Omehia on the ground that he was not the appropriate candidate of that party.
“My disagreement with the judgment is the order made by the court that Rotimi Amaechi who never contested the governorship election should be sworn in as governor of River State.”
Gani further submitted: “I consider the assumption of office by Rotimi Amaechi as a judicial imposition on the electorate of Rivers State who when they were voting on April 14th April, 2007 did not have in view or consideration Rotimi Amaechi who was not a candidate in the eyes, in minds and in the hearts of the electorate of Rivers State.”
According to the legal practitioner, the essence of democratic elections is that the electorate should decide who should be their leaders.

“On April 14 2007, the electorate of Rivers State decided through their votes that Celestine Omehia should be their governor, he campaigned as the candidate of PDP for that election. Now that his candidacy has been adjudged by the Supreme Court as illegal, he could not be the governor of that state. Simply put the Rivers State electorate cast their votes for an illegal candidate, consequently their votes for Celestine Omehia counted for nothing. I have no quarrel with that.”
Fawehinmi further stated: “The electorate of Rivers State did not have the opportunity to vote for Rotimi Amaechi as he was not a candidate for the 14 April, 2007 election of Rivers State. Simply put no vote in law could be attributed to Rotimi Amaechi when the election was held.”
He further cited Section 177 of the 1999 Constitution to buttress his argument saying that, the section provides that no governorship candidate could be validly returned as an elected governor where there are more than two contestants unless he has the highest votes cast in that election according to section179(2) of the constitution.

“Rotimi Amaechi could not have satisfied the constitutional provisions in section179 (2) as he did not contest the governorship election of Rivers state on April 14th, 2007.”
By the judgment of the Supreme Court, Gani expressed regrets that the electorate of Rivers State were denied the opportunity of electing their governor and that Rotimi Amaechi was imposed on them by judicial fiat and not through the ballot.

Gani said that in his own opinion, the appropriate order was for the court to have ordered a fresh governorship election in Rivers state with Amaechi as the PDP candidate as it “is only by this that the electorate of Rivers state would not have been denied their constitutional right to choose their governor.”

However, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), in a statement by its acting President, Mrs, Ladi Iliya, said it was particularly grateful to the Supreme Court which in this landmark judgment which decided to dwell on 'substantial justice without regard to technicalities'.

The NLC commended the people of Rivers State “who have been forced to live under an illegal government, insecurity and an endless curfew. We commend Mr. Amaechi for his tenacity, single mindedness and courage, and hope that he would bring these qualities as well as transparency to bear on his administration."

"The people of Rivers State have suffered much and the new governor needs to heal wounds and move the people towards a better life,” the statement said.
NLC also called on all workers and Nigerians to support the Supreme Court judgment and assist the new administration in Rivers State to take off smoothly.

"This judgment is one more nail driven into the coffin of arbitrariness and impunity, which has seized our body polity. In this wise, we call on all those aggrieved or short changed in the fatally flawed 2007 elections to remain steadfast in their pursuit of justice," it said.

According to the NLC, the Supreme Court judgment and the inelegant role of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the elections once again raises the issue of how long the Prof. Maurice Iwu leadership of INEC will be allowed to remain in office. “Clearly, free and fair elections will be impossible in the states where elections may be re-conducted if the Iwu-led INEC is the body charged with their conduct,” it said.

Former Vice-President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, commended the judgment on his return to the country yesterday after spending three months abroad, reportedly to undergo treatment for his leg injury which he sustained in a domestic accident last April.

Speaking with journalists at the airport, Atiku hailed the Nigerian judiciary for bold verdicts it had given recently on the disputed April elections at various levels.
He said the decisions by the Supreme Court, the election tribunals and courts so far have shown that “politicians no longer needed the military to sort out politics when they mess things up. We have gone past that stage.”

He praised the judiciary as the last hope of the common man, adding that he felt justified in his consistent and unbending trust in the country’s judiciary.
Among notable associates on hand to receive him at the airport were former governor of old Kaduna State, Alhaji Lawal Kaita, the Director General of Atiku

Presidential Campaign Organisation, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, former national chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Audu Ogbeh, former Foreign Affairs Minister, Chief Tom Ikimi and the National Publicity Secretary of the Action Congress (AC), Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

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SOMETIMES IT IS HARD TO SEE THE PLACE,GOD HAS CALLED YOU AS A PLACE OF BLESSING, BUT THATS WHEN YOU'VE GOT TO HOLD ON AND TRUST THE PROCESS
PEOPLE TEND TO DRAW OTHERS BACK FROM THINGS THEY SECRETLY WOULD HAVE LOVED TO DO BUT ARE NOT CAPABLE OR DARING ENOUGH TO DO
THEY WILL ALWAYS TALK BUT YOUR CHOICE IN WHO YOU LISTEN TO IS WHAT MATTERS......

Abeg Chibuike just do your job well -to hell with Odili !

so we cant really blame the supreme court ... if PDP/obasanjo's regime had no regards for the rule of law ...the court had to do whatever they could do to get the man who won the primary restored back .


obj was a reallllllll tyrant

__________________
SOMETIMES IT IS HARD TO SEE THE PLACE,GOD HAS CALLED YOU AS A PLACE OF BLESSING, BUT THATS WHEN YOU'VE GOT TO HOLD ON AND TRUST THE PROCESS
PEOPLE TEND TO DRAW OTHERS BACK FROM THINGS THEY SECRETLY WOULD HAVE LOVED TO DO BUT ARE NOT CAPABLE OR DARING ENOUGH TO DO
THEY WILL ALWAYS TALK BUT YOUR CHOICE IN WHO YOU LISTEN TO IS WHAT MATTERS......