Yobe versus Election petitioner
Unfortunately, rather than look at the issue from the actual perspective of the abuse of court process, a few writers, apparently scribbling at the behest of Albishir himself, have recently been on the pulpit casting aspersion on the nation’s judiciary as been the problem of Albishir. Albishir is actually his own problem. The details of […]
Unfortunately, rather than look at the issue from the actual perspective of the abuse of court process, a few writers, apparently scribbling at the behest of Albishir himself, have recently been on the pulpit casting aspersion on the nation’s judiciary as been the problem of Albishir. Albishir is actually his own problem.
The details of the Yobe governorship election scenario shows that Albishir started by taking his complaints over the nomination of the late Senator Mamman Ali to contest the Yobe governorship election on the platform of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) to the Federal High Court, Maiduguri. The court, however, struck out the case and simply counseled him to return to the party for amicable resolution of the matter.
Albishir rather chose to take the complaints to Court of Appeal, Jos, but did not wait to get its verdict before he instituted a suit on the same issue in Federal High Court (FHC), Kaduna. It was the Court of Appeal in Kaduna to which the late Mamman Ali who already won the governorship that upturned the FHC’s judgment as a result of which he (Albishir) went to Supreme Court where, instead of getting favourable verdict, his action was described as a forum shopping. A despicable action that is!
The heightened desperation of the man to clinch the governorship has now clearly given birth to his intention and action to cause distraction or confusion in the process of governance in Yobe State. Since the commencement of the case over which about thirteen judgments were, at different times, passed, both the late governor, Mamman Ali and the present one, Alhaji Ibrahim Geidam, went to courts over a dozen times.
Of course, curious minds will want to know the reasons for such an almost implacable desire of Albishir to become the governor and his failure to realize the dream. Why does he, at all costs, want to become a governor? And why has his ambition remained completely unfulfilled?
As a former minority leader of the senate and friend of the former governor, Bukar Abba Ibrahim, he, somehow, began to consider himself as the natural successor of the former governor and, consequently, took practical steps to either buy over or intimidate other contenders within the ANPP and, of course, delegates to the convention of the party. He, in fact, has almost succeeded in making everybody and everything to go his own way.
It was only when the late Mamman Ali who was also an aspirant refused to step down for him during the party primaries that Albishir began to see some real threat to his ambition. And a combination of indictment by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and his disloyalty towards the party leadership later made the impossibility of his emergence as a governorship candidate to thicken.
His failure to contest for the governorship remains quite understandable to observers of political developments in Yobe State. It was largely caused by the nature of his money-making business and attitude towards the national leadership of ANPP.
It was at a time when he was said to have won the primaries of the party and was, therefore, getting prepared to become a governorship candidate that the EFCC issued out a list of some indicted politicians on which his name boldly appeared. He was said to have been included in the list because of the issue of failed contracts with which he was associated.
What compounded his dilemma was clearly his contemptuous disposition to the party, especially when it summoned him along with its other members, including gubernatorial candidates over the issue of the EFCC and other matters of concern. While many others honoured the invitation, Albishir, out of disrespect, shunned the party thereby making the resolution of the matter completely impossible, hence the withdrawal of his candidature by the party and the subsequent nomination of late Ali who came second during the primaries, as the ANPP gubernatorial candidate in Yobe State.
The petitioner, has, since the occurrence of this incident, never rested as he keeps searching for a way to disturb the late governor and now Geidam so that the administration in the state will fail to deliver dividends of democracy to the people. Although he has consistently been a loser of the legal battle, he has continued to use the litigation as an instrument of distraction. But the Ali/Geidam government has always been well-focused as evident in its capacity to withstand the pressure of the opponents and total commitment to the development of Yobe State. While Albishir and his likes are busy trying to cause confusion, the state government has always been restlessly striving to meet the yearnings of the ordinary people in the state.
Since 2007 when it came into existence, the present administration has resolved to put Yobe State ahead of many others through the provision of infrastructure, improvement of agriculture and education as well as poverty alleviation. And if all these are added to the effort at strengthening the civil service, there will emerge a picture of a government that truly belongs to the people; a reality that will continue to give an opponent and petitioner like Alhaji Usman Albishir sleepless nights.
Now the issue has finally reached the Supreme Court with the appeal filed by the ANPP and INEC, which asked the apex court to determine if the Court of Appeal has not erred in its decision to allow Albishir to file out of time, since the basis of filing out of time has to do with his forum shopping and abuse of the court process.
It is also true that the former Nguru senator also wants the apex court to determine the case once-for-all. But it remains to be seen whether the apex court will assume original jurisdiction on an issue over which it has already given a verdict of ‘forum shopping’.
Gimi, writes from Kaduna