Opinion: Abba Moro vs Joe Ojobo; The day Barrister Ikonne returned from the gym

By: Ameh Ameh

When you ask a child not to keep late night, he will tell you the moon is shining – so says our elders.
Propaganda got closer to it final bus stop yesterday and it wasn’t a good day for lovers of photo ops and selfies.

Since the beginning of this case, the Abba Moro camp has been conspicuously silent to avoid overheating the polity.
As a man who aspires to be the leader of all, Abba Moro has been doing everything humanly possible to down play some of those blackmails targeted at him on daily basis.

I have been consistently of the opinion that it is this approach that made Boko Haram to gain a foothold on our territory and has become difficult to uproot from the land. General Yakubu Gowon also embraced this style during the civil war. It made the war to drag on for three years.
Some of the lies and half truth being peddled today could have a lasting effect on the psyche of our people if we don’t counter them early enough.

When an owl make a bad sound, it must be stoned with a bad stone. That was exactly what Barrister Ikonne (SAN) did yesterday.

After the Court sitting on Tuesday where Joe Ojobo’s Lawyers served INEC the originating summon that same morning which necessitated an adjournment, I had told Ojobo’s supporters that the Abba Moro Lawyer was in the “Gym” and will be ready at the appropriate time. Today Barrister Ikonne came out of the gym and I was proud of how much he had worked on his muscles.

Barrister Musa (SAN), lead Counsel for Hon Ojobo started the process by attempting to dismiss the affidavit and exhibits of the defence counsel.
He submitted that in exhibit KC1, the three people that contested the Senatorial primary were listed as Patrick Abba Moro, Joseph Ojobo and Mike Onoja, while in exhibit KC7, the names of the three people that contested the primary were listed as Joe Ojobo, Abba Moro and Okibe M. Onoja. He therefore asked that exhibit KC7 be thrown to the dustbin because the names are different. Barr. Musa also submitted that the total number of accredited delegates as recorded was 358 while the first defendant (Abba Moro) is said to have scored 461 votes. He therefore alleged overvoting by smartly discountenancing the fact that 461 was only arrived at after adding the result from the earlier votes held on the 4th of October. It gave me a clearer picture of this rumour of overvoting that’s everywhere on the street.
Barrister Musa as always, succeeded in putting momentary smile on the faces of Ojobo’s supporters in the Court room but it never lasted.

When Barr. Ikonne (SAN) got up to speak, he first produced the PDP membership card of “Joe Ojobo” which was already exhibited. His simple take was that if Joseph Ojobo is different from Joe Ojobo, then Joseph Ojobo is not a member of the PDP going by record. (pin drop silence). The learned counsel quoted the PDP electoral guideline, the constitution, the evidence act and the LPELR to back up all his arguments.

He told the court that the originating summon was infected by Ebola virus. The plaintiff, Joe Ojobo in his petition to the PDP said that he was at the National HQ of the party on the 7th of October when the election was conducted for those three LGs but in the originating summon, his counsel said he was in Port Harcourt for the national convention. His witnesses also deposed to an affidavit that they were prevented from entering the venue. The question is, how could they have said one Moses Audu conducted the primary election when they were not there? What or who is the source of their information? The evidence act does not create room for hearsay.
Barrister Ikonne argued that when six witnesses depose to an affidavit and the content is the same – word for word, it renders the evidence null and void and should be dismissed in its totality. He said the statement of the witnesses was infected with germs.

At this point, an uneasy calm had enveloped the whole court room. Hon Ojobo rested his head on the back rest of the pew in front of him as if he was sleeping. When Prince Sunny Inedu got up and headed out, I tiptoed after him since I wasn’t sure if he was coming back. On the ground floor, I whispered and he stopped. I told I’m Cletus Agada. With a smile, he said “Emoche” and stretched his hand for a warm handshake. I ran back to the room. My big brother, Emmy Flat got up from his seat, asked someone to take it and headed out straight. Barrister Ikonne was not just cutting tickets, he was burning them. Next time we’ll have to make provision for a first aid ambulance. I wanted to start singing “them don the go, one by one” but feared being charged for contempt of court. The judge told Barr. Ikonne his time was up. He pleaded for 5 more minutes. After about 8 minutes of talking none stop, the judge told him his time was up again, he pleaded for another 5 minutes but the judge objected. In rounding up, he reminded the court that the address of a counsel cannot take the place of hard evidence and asked that the “counter affidavit” and the “further counter affidavit” of the plaintiff be dismissed as what was addressed in those documents were different from the originating summon. He asked the court to strike out the case for lacking in merit.

The PDP Lawyer got up, adopted his deposed affidavit and exhibits and said he aligns with the counsel of the first defendant and have nothing more to say.

The INEC Lawyer adopted his affidavit and 13 exhibits and asked the court to dismiss the case and award a cost against the plaintiff.

Then it was time for Barrister Musa (SAN) to speak again.
He said “Joseph Ojobo” is the name that was used to fill the Nomination Form and anything outside that should not be recognised by the Court. The judge asked him to tell her the law backing his claim, he couldn’t produce any. He was overruled, he said “as the court please”. For another 5 minutes, Barrister Musa laboured without quoting any law. He used that time to say the laws quoted by Barrister Ikonne where not applicable to his case. A Senior Advocate supported by a Professor of Law in the court room suddenly became short of inspiration. It was a pathetic sight to behold as the police had to quell the noise at the background from grumbling supporters of Hon Ojobo. “The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD” so says the book of proverb.

After Barrister Musa’s last presentation, the Judge now dropped the bombshell: “I want the counsels to address me on an issue”. She pulled a book from her table, opened it and continued. “KAKIH vs PDP & ORS, how does it relate with this case” she quoted the section and edition it could be found in the LPELR and asked if her court has jurisdiction over the case. Barrister Ikonne said he had never read the report and asked for time. Barrister Musa suggested they should make a written submissions and come for adoption. The PDP Lawyer said he was part of that case from the High Court to the Supreme Court. Coincidentally, that case originated from Benue and ended at the Supreme Court. The Judge asked the two senior lawyers to meet and pick a date. After confiding with themselves for a while, they settled for Wednesday 12th December for adoption of written submission.

I ran after the PDP lawyer immediately the court adjourned since he is the one with better knowledge of the case in question.
He told me that in KAKIH vs PDP & ORS, the Appellate Court ruled that “since no relief was sought from INEC – the only agent of the federal government in the case, a Federal High Court lack jurisdiction to hear the case. That decision was upheld by the Supreme Court and it’s now a precedent.

By the time we got out of the court room, everyone wanted to have a handshake with Barrister Ikonne. I congratulated him for a job well done. He told me they had a gentleman agreement for the case not to go on from the chambers only for them to “ambush” him in open court. That explains why he was nervous at the beginning. I went to drag Anne Odeh, the Director of Women Mobilisation of the Abba Moro Campaign to join us for a photo session.

As it stand today, that case is already dead on arrival for want of jurisdiction. Any lawyer that says anything to the contrary is only after his pocket. Ojobo’s Lawyers should have taken the case to a state State High Court and invited INEC as a witness since their role in a party primary is limited to observer status.
On the other hand, by going to a Federal High Court and joining INEC as a defendant, they could have simply demanded that INEC should not recognise any other candidate from the second defendant (PDP) except their client. That could have place a responsibility on INEC as a defendant. In the present situation, INEC was only joined to waste their time.

It is the fly that refuses to listen to the cry of the bereaved that follows a corpse to the grave.
Hon Ojobo can withdraw this case now and begin the process of true reconciliation in the overall interest of his supporters who could play a role in the Abba Moro team. But as an adult, he can decide for himself.
We’ll do it again on Wednesday.