Written by Daniel Elombah
Thursday, 29 September 2011
[
elombah.com] Like joke, like joke, another crooked Senator will be foisted on Anambra people. It is bad enough that two Senators representing Anambra people in the National Assembly are serial election riggers. To have another crooked Senator who has never won even a single election in his life - whether rigged or not - foisted on Anambra people is a joke taken too far! Senator Alphonsus Igbeke, has vowed to present himself for
swearing-in today as the senator representing Anambra North on the strength of Tuesday's ruling of a Port Harcourt High Court.
While the leadership of the Senate insists that it was not aware of any court ruling directing the inauguration of the senator - the Senate spokesman, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, said the leadership was not aware of any court ruling concerning Igbeke's status - Igbeke said the court bailiff had sent a copy of the ruling to the office of the Clerk of the National Assembly "and this was duly acknowledged by the Secretary to the Clerk".
Who is Alphonsus Igbeke?
Tobi Soniyi writing in Thisday of 16 May 2011, called him "The Serial Senator who Never Wins Elections".
"This is the story of Senator Alphonsus Uba Igbeke – a third-term federal lawmaker who has never won an election but has consistently been granted victory by the courts", he wrote.
Earlier this year, an Abuja Magistrate Court issued a warrant for his arrest on the ground that his latest victory in court was procured through allegedly forged documents.
In 2003, Igbeke was pronounced a member of the House of Representatives by the court, even though he did not participate in the election.
He had lost the nomination of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and defected to the Alliance for Democracy (AD). But, curiously, after the election, he got the court to rule that he was the candidate of the PDP.
Then in 2010, he was again pronounced senator-elect for Anambra North, three years after Joy Emordi (PDP) had been sworn in, even though Igbeke was not a candidate in the election.
The court again ruled that Igbeke, who had defected to the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), was the winner of the election. He promptly returned to the PDP.
Igbeke has just done it again!
An Abuja court recently awarded him the senate seat for Anambra North after last April's polls, even though Igbeke did not participate in the election.
The warrant for his arrest was issued in Abuja in May this year, asking all police officers to arrest Igbeke anywhere he was found.
A copy of the warrant said Igbeke stood charged with forgery and using forged documents as genuine.
Before the warrant was issued, the police had told a Federal High Court in Abuja that Igbeke forged the documents he presented to court to obtain the judgment that declared him as the candidate of the PDP for the April 9 2011 National Assembly elections.
Igbeke then filed an application for the enforcement of his rights at a Federal High Court in Abuja when police wrote to the Clerk of the National Assembly asking for Igbeke to be released for questioning.
But in a counter-affidavit filed by the police in reaction to Igbeke's application for enforcement of his rights, the police said they were prepared to charge the senator with forgery.
In order to stop the police from arresting him, Igbeke filed the application under the Fundamental Enforcement Procedure Rules where he claimed that the police were hunting him because they wanted to stop him from campaigning for the April 9 elections.
But in a swift reaction, the police filed a counter-affidavit deposed to by Mr. Jonah Wutu, a police officer attached to the Legal/Prosecution Section of the Force Criminal Investigation Department.
In the counter-affidavit from the Federal High Court, the police described how Igbeke altered the result of the PDP conducted primaries for selection of the candidate to fly the party's flag for the Anambra North Senatorial District.
According to the police, the said primary was won by Mr. John Emeka jnr who polled 1,156 votes as against Igbeke's 74 votes.
But in another suit filed by Igbeke at the Federal High Court in Abuja, he claimed that he was the one who scored the highest votes of 1,156 from the primary conducted by Benji Udeozor-led PDP Executive Committee in Anambra State.
The police however found as a fact that it was Emeka who won the said primaries.
But relying on these false depositions by Ugbeke, Justice Abdul Kafarati gave judgment in his favour.
When Emeka got wind of the claims by Ugbeke, he wrote a complaint to the police. After carrying out a preliminary investigation, the police said that they discovered that Ugbeke had committed forgery.
The police consequently wrote to the Clerk of the National Assembly to release Igbeke to them for questioning.
Rather than appear before the police, Igbeke went to court to file an application for enforcement of his rights. He joined the Inspector General of Police as a respondent.
In reply, the police filed a 22-papragraph counter affidavit. Some of the dispositions by the police are weighty and painted Senator Igbeke as an alleged criminal running from the long arm of the law.
The counter affidavit reads: "I Jonah Wutu, male, adult, Christian, Nigeria citizen and a police officer attached to the Legal/Prosecution Section, FCID, Area 11, Louis Edet House, Force Headquarters, Abuja, doth hereby make oath and state as follows:
"That the Applicant (Igbeke) along with one John Emeka Junior and four others contested the PDP primary elections into Anambra North Senatorial District on 10/01/2011.
"That the applicant failed woefully having scored only 74 votes against John Emeka Junior's 1,156 votes.
"That INEC official monitored the primaries and wrote a report which confirmed John Emeka junior won the primaries.
"That the said John Emeka was duly returned as the PDP candidate to contest the April elections in his presence and knowledge.
"That the applicant (Igbeke) was not satisfied with his failure at the polls.
"He proceeded to alter the figures by allocating higher figures to himself and lesser to the John Emeka Junior i.e. 1,173 and 156 respectively.
"That armed with these fraudulent figures, Applicant proceeded to the Federal High Court."
"We started investigation and got facts about the accused/applicant as a sitting senator.
"We then wrote the Clerk of the National assembly to produce him for investigation. We were expecting him to come and state what he knows about the forgery, but to our dismay, we got this civil process.
"He is running away from the long arm of the law. He presented the documents in question to the court by way of affidavit.
"We are ready to charge him to court with forgery under relevant laws including Section 118 of the Electoral Act."
When Igbeke in 2007 swore that he will not contest the election, but whoever wins the election will serve for half of the term, while he - Igbeke - serves the remaining two years, a friend laughed it off.
When Igbeke again swore that he will be in the Senate before the end of 2010, then Senator Joy Emordi did not take him serious. Afterall, she was in the almighty PDP, Igbeke was then in the ANPP.
Igbeke somehow got a corrupt Enugu appeal court justice to declare him the rightful winner of the 2007 Anambra North senatorial elections with a forged INEC election results.
Before the PDP and Emordi got around realising what is happening, the evil deed was done, and Emordi was sent packing.
Senate President David Mark and the PDP did all they could to stop Igbeke from taking his seat in the Senate to no avail. Igbeke always got a court order in his pocket.
Today, history is repeating itself.
elsdaniel@yahoo.com
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