Your Excellency, Please Call Akaolisa To Order Now
By Eli Dibia
It is quite unfortunate that a close aide of Governor Hope Uzodimma, his Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Cyprain Akaolisa is fond of making bizarre utterances that are quite capable of sending out signals that are inconsistent with the attributes the governor is personally known for.
This concern stems largely from the fact that the major factor that endeared Governor Uzodimma to the hearts of the good people of Imo state, whose affairs he is currently presiding over, is his rather reticent nature, a fellow who is not boastful and who, in the five years plus he has been in office, has never abused his authority.
Shockingly, in the last couple of months, his Attorney General has said things that made the people begin to wonder if he was merely testing the waters for his boss. But those who know the governor closely have since come to his defence, namely that such utterances never got his blessings and that if anything, Governor Uzodimma means every word of his when he says that nobody should over heat the polity in order not to distract him in the remaining part of his assignment of serving the people.
The question then is, why is it that his Attorney General is the one daring the Governor by going against this warning?
It is possible that the governor is too busy or occupied to have noticed this trending ugly situation but if it is to his knowledge, then there is need to draw his attention to the danger it portends both for his administration and the entire Imo polity.
There have been a few instances but two recent utterances from his Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, came to Imolites with a big shock. A couple of weeks ago, Mr. Akaolisa was quoted as saying that only those who are members of what he referred to as “Camp Hope”, can aspire to succeed him in 2027/2028.
Even though any discerning fellow would easily dismiss such a claim, that it came from a fellow that is believed to be one of the closest to the governor, made the average Imolite wonder if Uzodimma has ceased being the “peoples governor”, who won overwhelmingly in all the twenty seven local government areas in the 2023 governorship election.
He was reported in the media as saying that “There Won’t Be Charter of Equity For Okigwe Until Justice Is Done Over Martin Agbaso’s 2007 Governorship Case”. I have chosen to quote Akaolisa verbatim. There is nothing like “Charter of Equity For Okigwe”. What Mr Akaolisa probably meant was that there won’t be “…equity for Okigwe…” Even though it has been almost turned into a cliché, what we have is Imo Charter of Equity and not Charter of Equity for Okigwe. Lawyers – Akaolisa is one – are known for sticking to technicalities in the use of language, not propagating street jargons.
I have read the well worded response to Mr. Akaolisa by the erudite scholar, Professor Nnamdi Obiareri, which, after clearly proving Akaolisa wrong, demanded of him to apologize to the people of Okigwe zone. I agree with everything Prof Nnamdi Obiareri said in his response but as far as am concerned, Ndi Okigwe do not need any apology from Akolisa. The reason is simple.
The only thing Okigwe people owe themselves is to seize the opportunity provided by Akaolisa himself to show the rest of Imo state and the country in general why Mr. Akaolisa does not deserve the office – of Attorney General – he currently occupies and, therefore, the need to strip him of that position before he does further damage to the image of both the Uzodimma administration and the state as a whole.
To the greatest shock of Imolites, Akaolisa was in 2021 slammed with a five-year ban from practicing as a lawyer by the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee. For more than four years he was running from pillar to post. He was only cleared last week by the Supreme Court.
Back to the issue of Charter of Equity and Akolisa’s media ‘explosion’, it needs no emphasis to state that the matter was dead and buried since 2008. It is a fact widely known that Chief Martin Agbaso pursued the matter of the suspension of the April 14, 2007 governorship election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) up to the Supreme Court and failed. So, how come that a state Attorney General is trying to query a ruling by the highest court in the land? Is Akaolisa challenging the Supreme Court? Even so, as a prominent member of a sitting administration and the chief law officer of the state for that matter, should Akaolisa have jumped into the political arena the way he is doing? As Attorney General, he is the Number One Commissioner because the office of the Attorney General is the only one recognized by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
As in the aphorism of the crying witch and the dead child, it is instructive that Mr. Akaolisa made his inglorious remark a few days after a prominent son of Okigwe zone, Chief Tony Chukwu, made the trending historic statement about the so-called Charter of Equity. Since then, some elements in Owerri zone have been abusing the entire Okigwe zone and to give some legitimacy to their fool hardiness, they must have thought it wise to procure the services of the state’s chief law officer and Akaolisa, as undiscerning as ever, fell to it.
This is not the first time the matter of Chief Agbaso and the 2007 Imo governorship election is being brought up. Mr. Mike Nwachukwu, a well-known politician from Owerri zone, had raised the issue sometime in 2024 while canvassing for a cooperative dialogue between Okigwe and Owerri zones with respect to 2027. Nwachukwu, who was the secretary of the Imo state wing of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), on which platform Agbaso contested the governorship election – and who was indeed Agbaso’s deputy governorship candidate – had claimed that Agbaso was coasting to victory on April 14, 2007 when the INEC, then chaired by Professor Maurice Iwu, an Okigwe son, stopped the election and rescheduled another round of balloting for April 28, 2007. This was the falsehood Akaolisa repeated in his recent media outing during which he poured invectives on Prof. Iwu. But in a no-holds-barred press statement, the former INEC chairman had sometime in the same 2024 put the matter before the general public. Iwu’s statement was a magnum opus which nobody has been able to dispute till today. For clarity, part of Iwu’s statement is hereby reproduce verbatim:
“I have hitherto refrained from responding to various comments and attacks on my person in connection with my period of public service or my position on public issues but Mr. Mike Nwachukwu’s piece contains many wrong assertion which must be corrected for the sake of history.
1. The suspension of voting at the 2007 Imo State gubernatorial election on April 14, 2007 was due to the dispute regarding the PDP governorship candidate, which did not in any way affect the House Assembly elections held on the same day. The Supreme Court had declared Dist. Senator Ifeanyi Araraume as the authentic PDP candidate against Engr. Charles Ugwu whose name was on the ballot paper. The apex court’s judgment was delivered a few days to the election which made it impossible for INEC to put Sen. Araraume’s name on the ballot. The leader of PDP, then President Obasanjo publicly declared in Owerri that the party had no governorship candidate contrary to the position of the law. INEC was bound by the extant Supreme Court declaration which made Sen. Araraume the PDP’s candidate. The leadership of INEC had advised the party to allow the election to hold with the names as contained on the ballot and that the correct name will be reflected at the election results declaration in the event of the party’s victory at the election and that would have been similar to the case of Rotimi Amaechi and Rufus Omehie of Rivers State. During the 14/04/2007 poll some overzealous individuals disrupted the gubernatorial elections by attempting to forcefully change the name on the ballot paper which led to mutilation of the ballots and violence in some polling units. The decision to suspend the gubernatorial election was taken by the Resident Electoral Commissioner based on his assessment of the situation in accordance with provisions of the 2006 electoral Act, which I endorsed. Prior to the completion of polling and before the tabulation of results the REC, the EO and the Ward-level electoral officials had the authority to suspend polling within their levels of authority if in their assessment the integrity of the election was jeopardized by violence or other disruptions. There was no tabulation of results even at the Polling Units, therefore no discernible winner would have been possible.
2. On the purported victory of Chief Martin Agbaso at the Imo Governorship election of 14/04/2007, the writer of the piece under reference was aware that Chief Martin Agbaso was not officially a candidate of APGA at that election, according to the judgment of a Superior Court and therefore could NOT have won an election which he never contested by law.
APGA had a protracted leadership tussle between Chief Victor Umeh and Chief Chekwas Okorie’s factions and Chief Martin Agbaso was to contest the 2007 election under Victor Umeh’s faction. The Superior Court gave a judgment in favour of Chief Okorie;s faction only a few days before the election. Martina Agbaso was already listed by INEC as the APGA candidate for the 2007 elections with a certain Mike Nwachukwu as his running mate. Mr. Nwachukwu is from Emii, a neigbouring community to Chief Agbaso’s Emekuku hometown and was used as a place-holder too comply with INEC’s timetable for the submission of candidates. The plan was to substitute Mr. Nwachukwu’s name with somebody outside Owerri zone for the position of Deputy Governorship candidate. The victorious Okorie’s faction of APGA petitioned the Superior Court again to enforce its judgment as it affected Chief Mike Agbaso and other APGA candidates sponsored by the Victor Umeh’s faction of APGA. The Court issued Form 48 against INEC and its Chairman which compelled INEC to obey the ruling of the Court rather than risk of Contempt of Court judgment with it implications. By that Court order INEC was unable to accept any substitution from Victor Umeh’s faction of APGA and the replacement of Mike Nwachukwu as the Deputy Governorship candidate of APGA. It would have been inconceivable for Chief Martin Agbaso to have deliberately chosen Mr. Mike Nwachukwu from the same Owerri zone as his substantive Deputy. Mr. Mike Nwachukwu as the Director General of APGA Imo State 2007 gubernatorial election campaign was aware that his principal’s name and his own name were retained on the ballot in compliance with a part of the Court’s judgment which ordered maintenance of the Status Quo and as a courtesy to an “Imo son”. Chief Martin Agbaso was NOT the legitimate candidate of APGA and could NOT have won the Imo 2007 Imo State gubernatorial election”.
I can state without any fear of contradictions that Akaolisa is the biggest problem of Uzodimma’s administration as far as image is concerned. He first brought shame to the administration by being the first Attorney General in the history of Nigeria to be suspended from practicing law for five years.
I advise the governor to take immediate steps to stop the likes of Akaolisa from further ridiculing him and his administration. Uzodimma is urbane, gentle and steadfast. Agreed, Akaolisa has been his long standing political associate but he, Uzodimma, has shown him and other such old friends a lot of faith. The least he can do to himself is to allow them drag his great reputation to the mud; one which he has taken to its apogee with his superlative performance as a governor.
His Excellency, Senator Hope Uzodimma, should call his Attorney General to order. But before the governor makes up his mind on what to do with him, I would advise C.O.C Akaolisa, as he is more (un)popularly known, to quickly retract his statement and pledge publicly to be of good conduct hence forth.
Dr. Eli Dibia Writes From Obowo LGA, Imo State