Derivation Front: War on All Fronts
It came into being to make some advocacy aimed at democratising the gains of the resource control struggle. But in recent times the Derivation Front seems to have been befuddled by political pressure, and has since been taking on battles from various fronts. Eddy Odivwri writes on the affronts of the Front
It may be right to say that the initiative to embark on the Resource Control struggle flagged off by the Delta State Governor, Chief James Ibori, gave birth to the plan by Barrister Moses Oddiri to establish what he called the Derivation Front. It came on board midway the first term of the fourth republic. It was essentially to demand that the proceeds of the13% Derivation Fund being paid to the oil-bearing states be shared among the oil- bearing communities according to the measure of resources they produce. It was the organic furthering of the principles of federalism. Noble, or so it seemed. But no sooner had the advocacy begun, than it was narrowed to Delta state, instead of the entire Niger Delta states. Not just that, the tone and tenor of the demand was soon laced with political motifs.
On closer investigation, the raison d'�tre of the body was soon laid bare. The founder, Moses Oddiri, had some personal axe to grind with the Delta Governor, James Ibori. The duo were in the university of Benin, Benin-city, in the mid 80's. Their paths had crossed since then, and the duo, several years after, have operated on perpendicular poles. Sources in Government House Asaba noted that the relationship between the duo only got worsened when Ibori, after becoming governor refused to grant the contract request of Oddiri
That discovery, as it were, provided a good insight into the vivaciousness of the campaign against the management of the resource control proceeds.
It all got clearer in year 2001, when the Oputa Panel started sitting. Oddiri, in one of the sessions did a mini-battle with Justice Chukudifu Oputa to just be an 'Amicus Curei' (friend of fhe court) so that he will have the opportunity to "nail Ibori" over a petition. But Oputa had seen through his motif and resolutely disallowed him from being an Amicus Curei.
When that failed, Oddiri's affront against the Governor did not abate. One thing led to the other, and he was arrested and charged to court on the charge of publication of false information against Ibori, adjudged a felony. He was arraigned in Asaba High court and ended up being remanded in prison custody, in Ogwashi-Uku, few kilometers from the Delta state capital, Asaba. When he was released, the experience merely inflamed the passion he had against the Delta State Governor and his administration, and perhaps with all persons associated with either the Governor or the Delta state government.
That had formed the fulcrum of his attack and position until the ex-convict saga broke out, in the heat of the re-election campaigns of last year. Ever since then, the Derivation Front had assumed a far more critical streak in pursuing its agenda.
Not long after, two members of the body fired petitions to the Independent National Electoral Commission and some other authorities alleging the offence of being an ex-convict against the Governor. In no time, the case took a frenzied note, with an orchestrated ululation in the camp of the Derivation Front, especially after the INEC initially withheld featuring Ibori's name as one of the PDP governorship candidates. In fact, so sure was Oddiri that Ibori will be then disqualified that he decided to run for the governorship himself. He soon collected nomination form, all to betray the original interest in the said advocacy: self interest. But his calculations were rumpled. INEC soon cleared Ibori and he was back on the beat. That Oddiri 's governorship ambition suffered miscarriage is no longer news. Since then, the ding dong battle between the duo have continued.
After the failure to clinch the PDP ticket, the Derivation Front re-grouped , and restructured its strategies, after losing a number of its scant members. Oddiri asked someone else to pose as the leader of the group, so that he can operate more freely. The plan soon paid off as Oddiri now appeared as a hired lawyer in a suit Derivation Front filed against Justice Lawal Muhammed Uwais, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) and some three other Justices of the Supreme court.
That thus opened another frontier of war for the young lawyer, seemingly stung with a war bug. Using the platform of the DF, he had accused Uwais and co of allegedly receiving bribe of N5billion from the Delta state governor, James Ibori, so as to deliver a judgement in his favour. It was an allegation that rankled the very integrity of the entire judiciary. But the onus of proof is on him. He who alleges, proves, is a common adage.
According to Oddiri, one Ighoyota Amori, then a commissioner for education in Ibori's first term cabinet, had granted an interview to a local newspaper where he was reported to have said the sum of N5 billion had been offered the Justices of the supreme court for the case before them. Based on that, the DF had gone to town, having a song and a dance, as to suggest the catching of a thief.
The body soon fired some three sets of letters in three months to the CJN urging him to investigate the veracity of the claim. The DF appeared in a haste to undo their target. It soon got blinded with that frenzy that even the little professional decorum and restraint needed in the practice of the law profession was sacrificed. As far as they were concerned, all was grist in their mill. They soon took the Supreme court judges to court. In the suit filed in Lagos High Court, undisguisedly, Oddiri was the lawyer defending the DF. The Derivation Front was represented by one Edikeme Akpovilli, DF National co-ordinator, and two zonal officers of DF-Mr Rex Onobrakpeya and Mr Patrick Agom.
In their haste, the DF had accused the CJN of failure to act thus giving credence to the belief that indeed the said bribe was received by them. Unknown to them, the Registrar of the Supreme court, Mr Danlami Senchi, had written the police authorities to investigate the said allegation, as they (Supreme Court) cannot investigate such a grave allegation against itself. The police authorities, led by Mr Ogbonnaya Onovo, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) went ahead to invite the INTERPOL to investigate the allegation.
But even at that, DF had made it looked like the failure of a party to act in the way an opponent expects, justifies or establishes an allegation. The DF had merely been responding to self-adduced mass hysteria.
While that was going on, the DF came up again with yet another wrap of allegation. That it had the last two pages of a judgement the Supreme Court was going to deliver ahead of the ruling. The DF advertised the said "scoop" in some dailies. It was a scam. How could a judgement that was yet to be delivered by the learned justices of the highest court in the land be leaked to some obscure fellows ahead of the judgement? Was it even true? The DF members have always boasted of having strong towers of "high connection" in high quarters. They claim that their streaks in uncovering top secret are because of the efficacy of their network in unconventional information gathering mechanisms.
The Supreme court was worried. Its reputation and hallowed integrity was at stake, Commenting on the seeming spuriousness of the allegation, Senchi noted that "I told the Police that apart from the Justices, the secretaries who worked with the Justices too should be investigated. I think if members of the Derivation Front are as patriotic as they claim, there is no need for them to disclose the identity of the people who gave them the copies of a yet to be delivered judgement, which they attached to their petition." The Supreme Court judges are expected to be the cherished treasurers of integrity,, otherwise, they would not have been able to travel to the peak of their career. If in doubt, ask retired Justice Wilson Egbo-Egbo.
So disgusted was Uwais, that in the morning of that judgement, last February, he had taken time to lampoon the method being employed by the DF to achieve its "mischievous aim". He stated that his fellow justices on the Supreme Court are men of proven integrity that cannot be carried away by filthy lucre. Describing them as "mischievous and totally misguided," Uwais warned them against stampeding the supreme court stressing that the apex court cannot be blackmailed by people who "have no respect for the rule of law."
The CJN is the chairman of the Nigerian Judicial Council (NJC) and any allegation against any of its members including himself, has to be properly investigated. The same process had informed the actions taken against some members of the judiciary in recent past by the NJC. The CJN has demonstrated his willingness to get to the root of the matter. He believes, and rightly so, that it is patently wrong for an aspersion to be cast on the Supreme Court judges simply because the judgement did not go the way the opponents wanted.
Commenting on the activities of the DF, Justice Albert Oduyemi, who is on the panel, noted that "it is obvious that the group (DF) is on a destructive mission against the judiciary and the bar but they will not succeed." It is significant that the CJN himself had vowed that anybody found to have been involved in the leakage of the Supreme court judgement will not be spared in the system. "That means that such a person is not qualified to be here", Uwais had said.
Several legal scholars, some of which are SANs have also hailed the judgement of the supreme court and noted that here was nothing in their argument to show that they bent the rules or swayed their judgements from the path of justice and logic because of financial inducement. They therefore consider the allegation as spurious. So Derivation Front, where is thy sting?
While still in the ring, the DF had also thrown some punches in the way of the Police authorities , which it has also accused of unwillingness to investigate the allegations brought to their notice. For a good measure, the DF had written the Inspector General of Police on several occasions detailing its unproven allegations against its accused.
He had even been invited to prove some of the allegations he had thrown up, but the police had not been able to establish anything significant from his presentations. It does look like the DF hawks the bribery allegation and tries to label anyone they meet on their way as an accomplice, if the persons does not agree with their own views.
Already, Oddiri is fearing the consequences of his actions as he had written that some of the efforts of the authorities to investigate his role in these allegations are aimed at nailing him subsequently.
"The idea perhaps is to set me on a collision course with the judiciary and the police with a possible charge to court for an non-existent offence or a framed offence, and which, with the CJN controlling the judiciary, I will be kept permanently in an organised judicial detention."
But if that is foreseen trouble by Oddiri, he already has enough problems with his Aragba Orogun community, which feels that his affront with the Delta state Government, has inadvertently led the government to seemingly neglect the development of the area. Many people in the area believe that it is a bid to punish Oddiri that the Abraka-Aragba-Abbi-Ozoro road had remained in terrible state of disrepair, even after government had put it on the state budget several times. Oddiri is from Aragba Orogun. So strong was the feeling of the Orogun people that they had to once organise a solidarity visit to Gov Ibori in Government House Asaba in 2002. At that forum, they disowned Moses Oddiri and said he was acting purely on his own behest, and had no support of the Orogun people as a body.
But more than that, Moses Oddiri may also have more battles to fight, even from his immediate family, on account of his stance. His elder sister, Grace, a popular local politician, and chieftain of the PDP had looked so good to clinch the party's ticket for a seat at the Delta State House of Assembly, just before the ex-convict saga broke out. Suddenly Grace, who had been very solid, stood on a slippery ground in the party, and even though she used her connections to retain the ticket, the powers that be in the state ensured that she lost the election. One George Oyefia, an ANPP candidate, won the seat. It was all to spite the Oddiri family. And the cause is Moses.
So, given the many fronts of the fights and concerns of the DF, it is becoming more and more apparent that its agenda in true sense is to be used as a political battle-axe to tear down those it is opposed to. How far can it go?
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