Respected National President of Southern Youth Foundation of Nigeria, Amb Comrade Emeni, has welcomed the judgement delivered by the Special Court of Appeal Panel set up to adjudicate in the political cases in Rivers State.
Amb Comrade Emeni Ibe (AP JP), who is the President General of Orashi National Congress, while addressing the media on Saturday said, “I join in welcoming the judgement order of the three-man panel led by Justice Onyekachi Otisi completely setting aside the strange judgement of Justice Lifu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, whose strange judgement would have clearly impaired the already conducted council polls in Kwara, Anambra, Imo, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Abia, Cross Rivers, Kano and other states of the Federation, who relied on their enabling SIEC laws in the conduct of those elections”.
“It will be recalled that some of us had strongly condemned the unpatriotic moves initiated by some known enemies of the state to target and punish Local Government workers, state civil servants and indeed Rivers people by attempting to use the courts to deny the state her rights to Federal allocations.”
“I hails this judgement order, which has clearly corrected the misrepresentation of the Constitution by Justice Peter Lifu’s judgement, which sought to impose INEC laws over State Electoral Bodies without any form of Constitutional amendment. No gainsaying the fact that the same Constitution that established INEC also gives legal backing to SIECs, hence both bodies are saddled with the responsibility of conducting elections at the appropriate tiers and there is no way INEC can seek to hijack the functions of the various SIECs except there is a Constitutional amendment.”
“Therefore, our stand on this issue and resistance of other convoluted attempts at suppressing truth in our state’s politics, is today justified.”
“The September 30th 2024 judgement delivered by Justice Lifu clearly derided our Constitution, none the least his order to security agencies like the Police and DSS not to provide security in Rivers State, were orders made in very bad faith and deserving of thorough investigation by judicial gatekeepers. I hereby congratulate the four LGA Chairmen of Orashi region and Rivers State in general for this judgement” Amb Comrade Emeni Ibe (AP JP) concluded.