The Deputy Chief of Staff to Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma, Chief Enyinna Onuegbu, has said former Governor Rochas Okorocha never took part in the All Progressives Congress (APC) primary for Imo West Senatorial District, which a Federal High Court in Abuja has now ruled he won.
Onuegbu, a lawyer, spoke on Friday evening on Arise News, monitored in Abuja, in a right of reply to Okorocha, who appeared on the same programme about 24 hours earlier.
“Imo APC people never saw Okorocha as an aspirant and he didn’t participate and was not even physically present in Imo State anywhere at any level. Any briefing of stakeholders, any briefing of delegates, any event conducted prior to that primaries, Senator Okorocha was not physically present,” Onuegbu said.
He asked at what stage Okorocha addressed party members as an aspirant. “At what stage did he consult? At what stage has he been able to provide evidence of I have been declared winner at any level, ward, LGA or state?” he asked.
Onuegbu said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the committee that conducted the primary both rejected the documents Okorocha relied on before the court.
“When the court, in its own documentation, the processes filed in court, showed that both INEC, the authority that supervised, APC committee that conducted, all denied the documents His Excellency Rochas Okorocha relied on. Before the court, they all denied them as forgeries, fictitious, and totally fabricated,” he said.
According to him, the court “chose to rely on what applicant filed without averting its mind to the need to resolve the conflict in the documentation brought by both parties.”
Onuegbu argued that where documents conflict in an originating summons, “the law requires the court to resolve the conflict by oral evidence of witnesses.” In his words, “What the law requires the court to do is to call evidence of witnesses so that they can be put to cross-examination.”
He added that the Supreme Court had held that “when forgeries are alleged, what the court is left to do is to put the parties to the witness box.”
Asked whether Uzodimma’s side had been denied the chance to present its own documents, Onuegbu said that was not the point. “He put forward documents and we put documents that showed that the authority that did the work disputed what he put. So this contradiction can only be resolved” by hearing witnesses, he said.
He rejected Okorocha’s reference to “Hope’s document,” saying the governor did not run the exercise. “Governor Hope Uzodimma was not the one who conducted the primaries. He was an aspirant like he was. Governor Hope Uzodimma was not the person who declared the result,” he said.
On the time Okorocha took to go to court, Onuegbu cited the Electoral Act. “When you tell me that the Electoral Act says any challenge to the result of a primary must be filed within 14 days, and you’re telling me a person who filed 87 days was right because that is when he became aware, it means that he was not aware of his victory too, which he claims,” he said.
He also questioned why Okorocha had shown no sign of having won. “A person who participated in an election in his senatorial district did not call for celebration in his community, his family, did not celebrate his victory, does not have a video recording, pictures of where he celebrated his victory or where his hand was raised up, something is wrong somewhere,” he said.
“When you tell me that a man who won did not come to party office to say, party people, thank you for electing me, a former governor of the state, something is wrong somewhere,” he added.
Onuegbu said Okorocha bypassed the party’s own complaint channels. “If you were in any manner denied your victory, the guidelines of the party provide for the steps you would take. There is a panel that goes into complaints after primary election results. There is an Appeal Committee that supervises the conduct of the first panel.
“Did he exhaust those domestic avenues set up in the guidelines of party primaries of the All Progressives Congress? The answer is no. He sat by in Abuja, concocted his documents and waited for when he would file at his chosen forum,” he said.
He also dismissed the affidavit filed on Okorocha’s behalf by his son. “His son, biological son, who is unfortunately being dragged into this, is not an APC member, did not participate in any of the processes and cannot depose to an affidavit in support of facts for which they have gotten a judgment that apparently will be challenged on appeal,” he said.
Pressed on whether his camp accepted that the court had spoken, Onuegbu said the court of first instance was only “the first rung of the ladder.”
“The court has spoken and we are contesting that what the court said is illegal, is not based on law, is not based on the facts of the matter. If we accept, we wouldn’t be on appeal. As far as we are concerned, this matter of what the judgment is, is for the Appeal Court.
“We have seen the capacity of the court from the judgment now. The knowledge of the court is now before the public and will be tested on appeal,” he added.
