The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja will today determine whether former President Olusegun Obasanjo could be questioned over his handling of the April 21 presidential election.
This came just as the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) candidate in the election, General Muhammadu Buhari, alleged on Monday that Obasanjo bought 80,000 rifles for security personnel to assist President Umaru Yar’Adua win the poll.
Obasanjo, who is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on which ticket Yar’Adua won the election, had claimed that all his actions during the election were covered by immunity which forbade anybody from questioning him over the election.
Buhari had joined Obasanjo as a respondent in his petition challenging Yar’Adua’s victory at the poll, alleging that the former president used the security forces, especially the military, to rig the election in favour of Yar’Adua through harassment and intimidation.
Obasanjo, in his preliminary objection to his inclusion as a respondent in the petition, claimed that he had the benefit of presumption of regularity of actions while in office, which included the supervision of the election.
He also claimed that Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution which covered him with immunity while in office also covered whatever he might have done during the election because he did them as the President and Commander-In-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for the good of the entire nation.
He asked the tribunal to remove his name from the list of respondents to Buhari’s petition. Replying him, Buhari, through his counsel, Chief Mike Ahamba (SAN), told the tribunal that Obasanjo’s name could not be taken off the list of respondents at the preliminary stage because he had to explain why he took certain actions during the poll, when full hearing begins in his petition.
Specifically, Buhari’s counsel argued that Obasanjo should be made to tell the whole world why he procured 80,000 rifles for security forces for the purpose of the election as well as the deployment of the military during the election, when the constitution was very clear on when the military could be deployed.
Ahamba added that the joining of Obasanjo as a respondent became imperative when his alleged conduct during the election was placed side by side with a statement credited to him that the election was a do-or-die affair for him (Obasanjo) and his party, the PDP.
He noted that it would be premature to discharge Obasanjo at the preliminary stage because the former president’s explanation would be crucial to the determination of Buhari’s petition.
He asked the tribunal to reject’s the former president’s claim that he did not take part in the conduct of the election, “because the applicant (Obasanjo) participated in the conduct of the election in one way or the other.”
While asking the tribunal to dismiss Obasanjo’s application, Ahamba stated that the former president must be made to answer all the allegations against him in the petition, instead of hiding under immunity.
Efforts by counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and both President Yar’Adua and Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to put in a word for the former president were rebuffed by the tribunal, which upheld the objection of Ahamba that they could not make oral submission on the issue.
Counsel for INEC, Mr. Kanu Agabi, had to pass his contribution to Obasanjo’s counsel, as he left his seat to confer with Obasanjo’s counsel as the latter made to reply to Ahamba’s submission on the point of law.
The tribunal chairman, Justice James Ogebe, announced the ruling date after submission had been made by the necessary parties in the application.
By Lanre Adewole, Abuja
Nigerian Tribune
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
