The Confident Restoration Association, CRA, has given reasons, why it disagreed with the Supreme Court decision that removed Sir Celestine Omehia as governor in 2007, replacing him with Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi.
It would be recalled that the Supreme Court on Thursday, October 25, 2007, ordered that Rotimi Amaechi should be sworn-in as governor immediately, after voiding the victory of Sir Omehia, on the grounds that Rotimi Amaechi was wrongly excluded from the election as candidate by his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, after he won the primaries of the party, during the governorship election in 2007.
The Association said it has no quarrel with the decision of the Supreme Court voiding the election of Sir Omehia on the grounds that he was not the appropriate candidate of the party.
Their grouse lies on the order of the Apex Court that Rotimi Amaechi who never contested the election, be sworn-in as governor.
Said the president of the CRA, Reginald S. Jaja, “I consider the assumption of office by Rotimi Amaechi as judicial imposition on the electorate of Rivers State who, when they were voting in April 14, 2007, did not have Rotimi Amaechi as a candidate in mind. The essence of democratic election is that the electorate should decide who would lead them. On April 14, 2007, the electorate decided through their votes that Celestine Omehia should be their governor. He campaigned as the candidate of the PDP”.
The Association said Amaechi was not a candidate during the 2007 governorship election under the constitution of the country and so in law, no votes could be attributed to him.
The members said under section 177 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a person shall be qualified for election to the office of governor of a state, if (a) He is a citizen of Nigeria by birth (b) he has attained the age of 35, (c) He is a member of a political party and is sponsored by that political party and (d) HE has been educated up to at least school certificate level or its equivalent.
They went further to state that under the constitution, a candidate for an election into the office of governor of a state shall be deemed to have been duly elected where, there being two or more candidates (a) He has the highest number of votes cast at the election and (b) He has not less than one quarter of all the votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of the Local Government Areas of the state. Rotimi Amaechi, they said could not have satisfied the constitutional requirement of section 179(2) as he did not contest the governorship election in 2007.
According to the president, the electorate were denied the opportunity of electing their governor and that Amaechi was imposed on them.
The Association recalled the boldness of Chief Gani Fawehinmi of blessed memory and hoped that the new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Mariam Alota Mukhtar would restore the hope of the masses on the judiciary.
