APGA PRESS RELEASE.


The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) Abia State has received the news of the judgement of Court of Appeal siting in Abuja which upheld the election of Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu as the Governor of Abia State after dismissing the verdict of an Abuja High Court presided over by Justice Okon Abang which earlier found Dr. Ikpeazu guilty of supplying false tax information and removed him as Governor.
As a law abiding party with the utmost interest of Abians at heart, APGA is happy that the Uche Ogah led PDP faction and their supporters have emulated the Alex Otti/ APGA example of peaceful conduct by accepting the judgment though unfavorable in good faith and with absolute equanimity while preparing to explore the option of appeal at the Supreme Court; this is how a civilized and responsible people behave in a democracy.
APGA hopes that the Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu -led faction of the PDP and their supporters would learn a lesson from this and subsequently desist from the misuse of public funds through sponsored protests, violence, threats, and general breach of public peace whenever a judgement goes against them; that is the only way to show leadership responsibility against selfish desperation.
In keeping to our long standing high regard for the judiciary and the Rule of Law, we respect the verdict of the Court of Appeal and thus do not intend to embark on a reckless voyage of pouring venom and vituperation against the Learned Justices and their judgement the way the Ikpeazu PDP faction and their supporters do. However, as interested parties we wish to make few critical but objectionable observations in the judgment ;
First, in the judgment, the Appeal court held that " The inadequacies of the tax receipts cannot be visited on Ikpeazu ". The Court premised this decision on the basis that Ikpeazu was not the one that prepared the said documents. We completely disagree with this decision because every taxable adult whether a private individual or a government employee /appointee is expected to know what he pays or what is being deducted from his salaries as tax, and therefore should care about the accuracy or otherwise of the information on his tax receipts, especially when such details are meant to be submitted for the purpose of an election.
Also the law does not require the tax agency to be the supplier of the information to the appropriate electoral /political institution, rather the aspirant who has been issued with such documents/information, such a person is also expected by law to suffer injuries arising from any false information hence the need for accuracy and thoroughness. So the attempt by the court to shift the consequences to the agency that cannot be punished here is unacceptable to us.

Would the court have endorsed documents showing one year tax clearance or any other untrue information from the accused just because the information contained therein was not prepared by him?
Could any other questionable explanation, even if it was an afterthought, from Abia state Board of Internal Revenue have corrected the false information, exonerated the accused or justified the false information he supplied when the agency in question remains under the control of the accused?
We believe that the law must have envisaged criminal connivance between individuals and institutions like a tax agency the way it is obtainable in Abia hence the constitutional prescription of punishment against individuals that supply false information.
Secondly and most importantly the court claimed that the Federal High Court presided over by Justice Abang lacked the jurisdiction to have heard the case because it was not properly filed having been signed by three lawyers for the Plaintiff against the requirement of one identifiable legal practitioner, and accused the Judge of assisting the litigant.
While APGA does not intend to delve deeply into this purely technical issue of filing/jurisdiction, we are,however, alarmed by its resurrection by the Appeal court when the Supreme Court had earlier decided on the issue of jurisdiction against Ikpeazu which necessitated it's directive for the Federal High Court to commence accelerated hearing in the case ab initio.
Without doubt, the hasty dismissal of the jurisdiction of the Trial Court by Appeal court against what the Supreme Court had earlier decided must have aided its decision to scratch the key issues of tax on the surface. This leaves us with the conviction that a thorough job may not have been done in this matter.
Finally, APGA wishes to express its dismay over the not too impressive and honorable utterances of the Justices of the Court of Appeal since the just decided case was brought before them.
We regret to state that our careful observation suggests that the Judges derived joy using derogatory words against individuals rather than apply fair legal terms in accepting or dismissing cases or applications of individuals without necessarily insulting such persons who have merely expressed their rights in the most acceptable and constitutional manner by coming to court.
The judges used such words against APGA and her candidate while dismissing the APGA joinder appeal, and they also repeatedly used such words in the most insulting manner against Justice Okon Abang, against known modern judicial practices.
The Judges forgot that Justice Abang was a lone Judge who was likely to make more mistakes in deciding a case, unlike Appeal court with five justices who would put heads together to decide a case.
Also when the Appeal court initially ruled on the issue of jurisdiction in favour of Ikpeazu before the commencement of trial proper, the Supreme Court took contrary position against the Appeal court but in support of the earlier decision of the Federal High Court, the Supreme Court didn't resort to insulting the Appeal court Justices even though it upturned their verdict; we therefore appeal to the Judges to behave better next time by shunning this swagger of arrogance that evokes suspicious hostility.
As usual we appeal to all Abians across political lines to shun political and sectional hate, those engineered by selfish politicians. The present legal battle is aimed at opening our democratic space while bringing to an end years of political docility and impunity that has held Abia down for the good of all; that is the beauty of democracy which can only be understood and appreciated by those with knowledge of democracy.
Abia must be better.
Signed
Rev. Augustine Ehiemere
State Chairman, APGA.