NAGAFF President, Chief Tochukwu Ezisi.
Story by Dili Utomi.
The National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), the mastermind of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) has taken a position on the judgement of the Appeal Court sitting in Kano over the gubernatorial election of February, the 25th which saw the party’s candidate, Kabir Abba Yusuf emerge as the governor from that election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had announced and declared Abba Yusuf of NNPP as the winner of the election, having scored the majority of the lawful vote cast. He scored a total of 1,019,602 votes while Nasir Gawuna of the APC got 890,705. The governor has just been asked to vacate office for the candidate of the All Progressive Congress’s Nasir Gawuna while the appeal court was giving judgement on the 18th of November.
In reaction to the judgement, the president of NAGAFF, Chief Tochukwu Ezisi has released a statement which strongly disagrees with the judgement. Part of the statement reads “The Appeal court judgement is not ad idem with the overwhelming wish of the majority of the people and the victory of the governor at the 2023 governorship election. Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf has as much as most Nigerians been horrified cum appalled at the judgement of the election petitions tribunal which sacked him as the governor in the Petition number CA/KN/EP/GOV/KAN/34/2023”.
The statement continues thus “Democracy as a form of government has certain ingredients that nurture and sustain it. One of these core ingredients is the principle of the separation of powers by the three arms of government, the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary. It is umbrageous that this principle is gradually being eroded as the top political class seem to explore all negative avenues in ensuring that they undermine this principle as soon as they hold the reins of power”.
The Association is clearly miffed by what they perceive as an attempt by the top political class at complete capture of all structures that tend to promote good democratic culture and would want to lend their voice to those of well meaning Nigerians who are crying out that the judiciary is being highjacked for personal political gains.
The president added that “The judiciary, as a crucial arm and the hope of the common man that is supposed to act honourably and stay above board has seemingly been engaging in judicial rascality largely because of the iron grip hold and the influence that the executive has on it. It is a fact and law that all political parties have the right to determine who is or who is not a member of their parties and that right should not be taken away from them by mere legal gymnastiscs”.
The statement further raised some questions about the party membership of the governor as a reason for the upturning of the victory of the NNPP candidate by the appeal court and these include:
a. Is that issue not statute barred being a pre-election issue.
b. Can a member of another political party challenge the candidature of another candidate of a different political party?.
c. Does APC and its candidate have locus Standi to raise the issues above having regard to plathora of decided cases on this subject matter by the court of appeal, including the recent Presidential Election Tribunal of Nigeria.
The NAGAFF President also pointed at some references by some respected Nigerians saying “We also note that several high-profile legal luminaries have expressed their dismay at the image of ‘judgment buying and selling’ within the judiciary. A new viral video shows the former president of the Nigeria Bar Association (Olumide Akpata) addressing participants attending the International Bar Association’s Conference, where he was detailing the level of rot within the Nigerian judiciary. The current trend of the ruling Party at the federal level stealing the mandates of most Nigerians has also created an atmosphere of loss of confidence in the judiciary”.
The statement also shows that the Party will appeal the judgement as they also advise people to be calm while hoping that justice will be done. They call on president Tinubu to make sure that justice is not only done, but is also seen to have been done in the entire country.
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