APGA Protests Delay in Appeal Against Nnamani
Emmanuel Ugwu, Enugu
All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has raised alarm over the continued delay in hearing of the appeal it filed against the verdict of the election tribunal, which upheld the election of Governor Chimaroke Nnamani of Enugu State for a second term.
APGA made its worries and frustration known in a letter, which its national chairman, Chief Chekwas Okorie addressed to the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Umar Abdullahi, dated June 28, 2004 and circulated to newsmen in Enugu yesterday.
In the protest letter the APGA leader pointed out that the Appeal No. CA/E/EPF/2004 filed by the party's gubernatorial candidate, Chief Ugochukwu Agballa against Nnamani, INEC and 3, 227 other respondents was about the first appeal by any aggrieved gubernatorial candidate hence the delay in the hearing was uncalled for.
APGA is alarmed and indeed very much disappointed that your |lordship has continued to delay the setting up of an appeal Panel to hear this appeal which millions of Enugu State people and indeed the general public have shown much interest in, Chekwas told the Appeal Court president.
He said at the time of writing the letter the respondents were already 14 days out time in replying to the Appeal petition, �which was duly served on them exactly on the 9th of June 2004.
Okorie pleaded with justice Abdullahi to move fast and set up the Appeal Panel because the judiciary has the responsibility to protect our hard earned democracy by upholding the rule of law without fear or favour.
Said he: Your Lordship, election petitions are supposed to be tried expeditiously. In the next few weeks, Judges will be going on vacations and this appeal matter which is not supposed to be affected by such recess will be predictably delayed, till God knows when.
The APGA chairman explained to the Appeal Court president that his party was constrained to make the letter available to the Nigerian media, the national Judicial Council, and the foreign missions in Nigeria to draw public and international attention to our predicament.
He recalled the �frustration and pain that the party and its gubernatorial candidate went through at the tribunal stage as the original tribunal set up for the case was transferred from Enugu to Abuja for security reasons and after a few months it was dissolved without any explanation whatsoever even when the trail was already mid-way into hearing.
Okorie further reminded the Appeal Court president that APGA protested the unusual development and drew his attention to the claim of the respondents that they would influence the setting up of a new panel that would pander to their whims and caprices and ultimately deny us justice.
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