Abia election tribunal: Spoilation and quest for justice
That members of the PDP would attribute the fire to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and its governorship candidate in the April general elections, Dr. Alex Otti, was the most irresponsible and ludicrous accusation I have ever heard. As usual nothing they did in the past and have continued to do in order to hold on to power surprises me anymore.
These are the same people who accused Otti of sewing military uniforms for a couple of men during the campaigns. They later sent armed men, who invaded his residence at Umuru-Nvosi in Isialangwa South Local Government Area of the state supposedly to kill him. The same people whose thugs tore up Otti’s billboards, attacked his campaign events in Ikwuano and Ntigha in Isialangwa North Local Government Areas.
Again after the elections and some unscrupulous officials of INEC in the state were arrested by security agents at the INEC headquarters in Umuahia with Card Readers and other electoral materials, PDP shamelessly once again said the suspects were working for Otti and APGA, in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Just recently after an unsuccessful assassination attempt was made on Otti in Abuja, Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu and his band of media liars characteristically jumped on the matter, accusing Otti of making up the story so as to generate public sympathy even after the police authorities had confirmed the incident.
This is why their recent accusation about the fire at INEC did not come as a surprise to me. I simply ask, what else is new?
I think this time they have finally outdone themselves. This time they have actually shot themselves in the foot. Having failed in all their previous efforts to derail the tribunal, the most recent being their failure to get Otti’s petition dismissed, they finally decided to destroy the evidence that was supposed to be brought to the tribunal for forensic examination by Otti’s team.
Let us not forget that both the PDP and INEC previously conspired to refuse Alex Otti’s legal team access to those materials, in spite of the tribunal’s order. So far they have got away with almost everything they have done. But let us see if they can get away with this one.
I am not a lawyer but I know that there is in law, the ‘’Theory of spoliation”. In a layman’s language, the theory says that ‘’when a party destroys evidence, it may be reasonable to infer that the party had “consciousness of guilt” or motivation to avoid the evidence.’’ Therefore, the fact finder or in this case the tribunal judge may conclude that the evidence would have been unfavourable to the spoliator and as a consequence may impose a fine, or dismiss the case against the guilty party, while rendering judgment in favour of the opposing litigant.
Even though not all spoliation inference may be warranted depending on the circumstance, in this instance, the concept of spoliation can be linked to the tampering of evidence, which is usually the criminal law version of the same concept.
A good example of the application of this concept was a case in the States of Texas here in the United States in 2013. It was a case named Brookshire brothers Ltd VS Aldridge 2013 . As reported, Jerry Aldridge had taken the bookstore to court for an injury he had sustained in the store when he slipped and fell. Mr. Aldridge with the assistance of his attorney discovered that the bookstore which had earlier refused them access to video footage of the incident, destroyed some video footage and withheld some from them.
The judge found that the evidence destruction and the refusal to provide the additional video constituted spoliation and as a consequence the jury awarded Mr. Aldridge $1million in damage. Even though not all spoliation inference may be warranted depending on the circumstance, in this particular instance of the burning down of Obingwa INEC office, resulting in the destruction of evidence, spoliation inference can rightfully be made.
To any discerning mind, there is a similarity between what this bookstore did and what INEC and PDP had done earlier when they refused Otti’s forensic experts access to these evidence materials, which have now been burnt. The fire was an act which violates due process. It is an intentional destruction of evidence that were exculpatory to Otti’s case and capable of incriminating the three respondents in the case, viz: Ikpeazu, PDP and INEC.
For PDP to turn around to accuse APGA of committing this heinous crime is to say the least preposterous and laughable. What do they think the Abia people are? How would they expect any true son or daughter of Abia state to believe that Otti, who has been fighting to be allowed access to these materials, which he desperately needs to prove his case against the PDP would turn around and burn down the INEC office along with the materials, just after the judge had issued an order to INEC to bring the materials to the tribunal. This is simply balderdash!!!
The question now is what could have compelled the people to go to this extreme? I guess the answer can be found in what happened when Ikpeazu’s legal team lost in their bid to get Otti’s petition thrown out by the tribunal.
In trying to achieve this objective they had filed as many worthless motions as possible, cited every legal precedent they could lay their hands on to get the case dismissed. All three respondents were so much in agreement with this last strategy that even INEC did not hesitate to join in the motion in which they argued, albeit unsuccessfully that Otti’s petition was incompetent due to inexplicable irregularities or omissions. But as God will have it, the tribunal’s chairman, Justice Usman Bwala, in his wisdom held that the petition processes, which the respondents attacked, were proper and therefore needed to be heard.
Their hope of getting the case thrown out on the bases of technicalities was therefore dealt a devastating blow.
However the not so discerning minds amongst Ikpeazu’s supporters have been all over social media whining, why the case was not dismissed as they had hoped for and as they mourn their loss of the first two rounds of the case. The first being when the court ordered INEC to produce before the court all election materials in the aforementioned local government areas for forensic inspection.
Justice Bwala had the “right reason” to refuse the respondents motion for dismissal since in the judgment of the tribunal they could not find a good reason not to, even on the technicalities Ikpeazu’s lawyers had hoped for. As the case progresses, we will hope and pray for justice, as justice is the first virtue of social institutions.
However, one Ugochukwu Uwaoma in reporting his own skewed version of the court proceedings concluded by asking for God’s help.
My question is, when did God get into the business of helping out people who steal what does not belong to them? Maybe Mr Uwaoma never read in the bible where it says,”Thou shall not use the name of the lord thy God in vain,” “Thou shall not covet thy neighbours’ thing’’ and “Thou shall not steal,’’
In retrospect, I have come to realize that our people have become very adept at invoking God’s name tirelessly without provocation, without necessity and without justification, perhaps as a pre-emptive measure.
In an effort to ease their pain and disappointment, the answer to their question can be found in the words of this Roman aristocrat, Marcus Tutllius Cicero, when he said, “For there is but one essential truth which cements society, and one law which establishes this justice. The law is ‘right reason”, which is the true rule of all commandments and prohibitions. Whosoever neglects this law written or unwritten is unjust.”
Long before the Abia tribunal started sitting, many in the opposing camp had wondered why Otti would not let bygones be bygones and go on with his life. My answer to that is yes, he could have done that, but it would have been a let down to the hundreds of thousands of Abia electorate who voted for him and had their mandate stolen.
The truth also is that even though Otti is the one who filed the petition, the real people behind the petition are Abia citizens. In doing so Dr Otti must have harkened to the words of Ellie Wiesel, the Jewish holocaust survivor and hunter of German World war 2 criminals who once said, ‘There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we must fail to protest”. To which Martin Luther King lent these words, “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. ‘’Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering and struggle, the tireless exercise and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”
Otti is a tireless crusader for justice but let the word go forth, loud and clear that he is not in the struggle alone. There are hundreds of thousands of Abia people both at home and here in Diaspora who are with him, who believe in him and his cause because his cause is theirs as well.
Here in the United States the kind of support and followership Otti’s quest has generated is like none that I have ever seen or experienced in my lifetime and I doubt if there will ever be anything like this ever again. These are people who believe that even though only a few will have the greatness to bend history, each of us can work to change a small portion of events, hence their commitment to this fight.
Human history has always been shaped from numberless diverse acts of courage as exemplified by Otti and each time a man like him stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope which in time builds a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and injustice.
It is said that the cry of the poor is not always just, but then, the reality is that if we don’t listen to it, we will never know what justice is. There is a reason why hundreds of thousands of Abia citizens are crying and yearning for justice, for the reclaiming of their election mandate. There is a reason why they agonized and continue to agonize this loss by trooping out to the tribunal venue each time it is sitting.
To them as the hearings progress, let the truth be the aim and true justice the outcome, not just victory alone. Ours over the years have been a country where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails and where one class is made to feel it has no chance before our justice system and to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them. Ours is a country where for too long we talk about election rigging. Something whose negative impact we recognize and condemn. An act which those who participate in it enjoy, those in power ignore and we the citizens acknowledge but tolerate.
Our collective tolerance for election rigging is amazing but when we see a set of justices who seek the truth and stand by the law and who are determined to do what is right, it gives us hope.
Thankfully Abia state is blessed with election tribunal justices who are beckoned not to see the world through a one-way mirror and whose memories do not struggle to rescue the truth and who believe that peace is only possible with justice and information that gives them the power to act justly. Truth that can only be garnered by witness’ testimonies and listening to the testimonies of INEC officials whose conscience will not let them conceal the truth.
the same way truth is of a system of thought.
A wrong cannot be made right or allowed to stand, if it is unjust. Everyone of us possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of a society as a whole cannot override. Therefore as the legal jurist, John Rawls once wrote, “In a just society, there must be liberties of equal citizenship and the rights served by justice are not subject to political bargaining or the calculation of social interest.”
True justice must be served at the tribunal hence there must be no inclination to give a wrong ruling so as to ensure societal peace or to avoid social unrest.
For years, Nigeria has come to be a country where rather than justice for all, we are evolved into a system of justice for those who can afford it. We have people who are not only too rich to be jailed, but too big to be held accountable for their crimes.
No one expects Ikpezu to go to jail for rigging an election, maybe he should, but the point needs to be made for future politicians that if you rig your way to victory there is very good chance that your victory will be taken away from you by a tribunal.
Those who had committed the crime of burning down the Obingwa INEC office must be made to pay for this crime. If and when it is proven that this was an act committed by PDP agents, the tribunal justices must apply the theory of spoliation whether or not it is part of Nigeria’s case law.
Common sense and the principle of fair play demands that the culprits be punished by awarding victory to Dr Alex Otti without further hearings.
In conclusion, I would urge for reinforced security for the honorable justices as well as the court premises. These enemies of justice are ruthless and are very determined to hold on to power.
In Abia tribunal justices we trust and in Dr Alex Otti we pledge our unshakeable support and commitment.
Mr.Nnanna Ijomah wrote from New York, USA.
