CLOs Condemn Frivolous Court Orders To Disrupt Election In Anambra

A coalition of Intersociety and the Civil Liberties Organisations have expressed displeasure at rising cases of discredited court orders over recently held party primaries in Anambra State ahead of the November 6 gubernatorial elections.

The groups made their grievances known via a statement signed by the International Society for Civil Liberties & Rule of Law, the South East Zone and the Anambra State Branch of the Civil Liberties Organisation.
The groups warned that the relevant authorities must nip the trend in the bud before it disrupts the forthcoming guber poll. They condemned some politicians and judges who decided entertain undemocratic litigations.

According to them, the people of Anambra State were politically awake and prepared to elect their next leader democratically.
“It, therefore, saddens our heart that some leading politicians in Anambra State have made themselves perpetual propellers of individual and collective selfishness and foolishness. To them, politics in the state has become a private estate or property, and they must have thoughtlessly forgotten that power lies on the masses,” the groups remarked.

After analysing the situation in the leading political parties in the state, the groups attributed Anambra’s political chaos to the selfishness of some individuals.

The coalition described the turbulence in the incumbent All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) as ‘self-invited and self-inflicted.’ They noted that the party’s primary was flawed as the party disqualified many leading aspirants to give way for an anointed candidate.

The statement lamented that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is suffering from a selfish obsession for privatising the party, which has led to frivolous litigations and procurement of discredited court orders.

“In APC, the figures produced for the ‘winner’ had never been scored credibly by any gubernatorial winner in any governorship election in the state since 1999,” the groups said.

The Intersociety and CLOs accused the Willie Obiano-led government of complicity in the indiscriminate litigations and procurement of court orders to stampede the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to alter the candidates for the election and eliminate threats. They cited Rivers, Zamfara, and Imo as states where courts assumed INEC’s duties to conduct, collect, collate, announce results, and declare winners for elections.

The groups called on the Hon. Justice Onochie Anyachebelu, the Chief Judge of the state to caution the judges under his jurisdiction to ensure that the governorship election holds without rancour and acrimony. They also charged political parties to put their houses in order, play by the rules and entrench the culture of popular voting.