FLASHBACK SERIES(3) THE MID-NIGHT JUDGMENT Suite 1034 of Abuja Sheraton Hotel was the control room. This was the place that served as the incubator where the anti-june 12 plans were hatched. Bashorun MKO Abiola must never win the fast-approaching June 12, 1993 election. General Ibrahim Babangida must continue in office as Military president for another four years. That was the game plan. Present at this meeting of May 18, 1993 were Chief Francis Arthur Nzeribe, leader of the Assosiation for Better Nigeria(ABN), an organisation set up and funded by General Babangida to scuttle the June 12 1993 democratic march. Others at the meeting included Abimbola Davis, Director of Operations of ABN, Clement Akpamgbo, Attorney-General of the Federation and legal strategist, Brigadier Haliru Akilu, the chief spook of Babangida and linksman to the ABN and Brigadier-General David Mark. This days mission was to finalise arrangements of how to file a suit at Abuja High court to stop the election scheduled for June 12. After endorsing the affidavit, drawn up by Arthur Nzeribe, Akpamgbo took it to Oguta, Nzeribes home town for fine-tuning. Here, it was decided that a Yoruba man, Abiolas kinsman, should be the plaintiff in order to reinforce the believe that the suit had no tribal colouration. And the lot fell on Abimbola Davis, the Organisations Director of Operations, to stand as plaintiff. Back in Abuja, having perfected this, there was a little problem. A pliable judge had to be secured to hear the case and Brigadier Akilu was mandated to contact the Chief Judge of abuja, Justice Dahiru Saleh, who was close to the government and a willing accomplice to the conspiracy against democracy. Akilu was to make sure that the case was assigned to a trusted judge who could do their bidding. But the trusted judge was out of town and had to be awaited before the case was assigned. The judge, Bassey Ikpeme was quickly recalled from Lagos where she was on a brief visit. Justice Ikpeme, a close associate of Justice Minister, Akpamgbo did not hesitate to do the biddings by stopping the election on June 10, two days to the election. Prior to this suit, the ABN and a shadowy Committee of Elder Statesmen, coordinated by Mazi S.G. Ikoku and Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, had launched series of campaigns in conjunction with Nzeribes ABN to prolong Babangidas stay in office. Alarmed at these developments, the Campaign for Democracy(CD), led by Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti, headed for the court to restrain the ABN from its nefarious activities. Joined as co-defendants in the suit No LD/1148/93, were General Ibrahim Babangida and Chief Ola Olatunde, National Director of Operations of ABN. (It later turned out after the election that the said Olatunde was a fictitious name). Dr Ransome-Kuti contended that the activities of ABN, if not checked, could derail the transition process, a prognosis that later came to pass. In his ruling, Justice Dolapo Akinsanya, disagreed with Chief Bayo Ojo(SAN), counsel to ABN that his client has freedom of speech and association. The judge held that the activities of the second defendant have gone beyond the exercise of freedom of Speech and association, having regard to the nature of the call, the magnitude of its programme of action and the general bearing of its officers nation wide. Must the government close its eyes and let this Body carry on a programme of action which covers the entire country and running propaganda alongside the two registered political parties but with dissimilar agenda and which call is not compatible with the law on transition to civil rule? The judge then restrained ABN and its agents from carrying out any activity that would perpetuate Babangida in office. Despite the court order, the ABN and the government still succeeded in manipulating the Abuja judiciary to do their bidding. It succeeded in getting at ex parte order at 9pm of Jun e 10, 1993. On the day of the late night ex parte order stopping the election, there was a flurry of activities between Justice Ikpemes court chambers and the office of the Attorney-General. This led to the speculation that Akpamgbo may have written the ruling for the judge. In her ruling, Justice Ikpeme did not only stop the election but was carried away by the interests she was serving when even at ex parte stage, she made this remark, in agreeing with the ABN on the alleged conduct of some state Governors at the SDP primaries, when she remarked:This is the greatest shame in the history of Nigerias politics! For a judge to make such outlandish biased statement at ex parte stage of the case when the other party, NEC had not even been heard, exposed the judicial conspiracy in the whole saga. Confusion cradled the nation in its hands. NEC promptly issued a statement, disregarding the court order, stating that the election would go ahead as scheduled. The election held on June 12 and when it became apparent that Abiola was coasting home to victory, the ABN hatched another plan. They ran to their judicial good guy, Justice Saleh, who in his chambers on June 16 immediately granted an ex parte order, stopping further release of the result. The rest is history.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 12:28:07 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015