Legal eminence and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr. Femi Falana, has revealed the crucial role he played in ensuring that Peter Gregory Obi, completed his four-year tenure as Governor of Anambra, after he successfully reclaimed his stolen mandate in court, back in 2006. As Nigerians prepare for the legal fireworks, that are expected to follow the contentious February 25 presidential election, Falana has come out to reveal the timing of this revelation.
Speaking with Charles Aniagolu, on Friday night’s episode of ARISE TV’s “Prime Time” programme, Falana revealed that, after three years of legal wrangling to regain his mandate, Obi was happy to take over for Governor Chris Ngige, who had been removed from office, by the Supreme Court, but he (Falana) wouldn’t let him.
The Peter Obi case was quite intriguing, he remarked. A three-year period was used to keep this man out of office. Although Dr. Chris Ngige was named the winner by INEC, he won the 2003 governorship election. It took 35 months, nearly three years for Obi’s plea to be accepted. Fairly speaking, Obi did promise to take office, and use the remaining time of the tenure when the court’s decision was announced.
But I objected. In Lagos, I yelled “no!” with a lion’s roar. I explained to Obi that, since Ngige’s election had been ruled invalid by the court, he was not in fact serving a term of office, and hence could not be expected to finish one.
Once you take the oath of office, you will immediately begin serving your whole term. Then, each attorney attacked me, claiming that I was making up things. But I refused to back down, and Obi used my position to his advantage. He pursued the case all the way to the Supreme Court, where he was successful in getting a ruling.
