US embassy cable - 03LAGOS2187

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 LAGOS 002187 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
LONDON FOR GURNEY, PARIS FOR NEARY 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/23/2005 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, KDEM, PINR, NI 
SUBJECT: SOUTHERN SNAPSHOTS - OCTOBER 14 TO 24, 2003 
 
 
REF: LAGOS 1937 ET SEQ 
 
 
Classified By: ACTING CONSUL GENERAL JOSEPH P. GREGOIRE FOR REASON 1.5 
(B) AND (D). 
 
 
The wheels of Justice grind slowly.... 
 
 
1. (U)  Although most Nigerian and foreign election observers 
acknowledged that the Spring 2003 gubernatorial, National 
Assembly and Presidential elections were rife with fraud, all 
agreed and all urged disgruntled losing candidates and 
political parties to pursue their claims and complaints in 
the constitutionally-established Elections Tribunals.  Since 
the day after the elections ended, Tribunals have been 
hearing challenges to elections -- including the Presidential 
elections -- in several southern States and other States in 
the north. There is no end of the judicial proceedings in 
sight, and these cases may well linger until the next 
elections in 2007. 
 
 
2. (U) Ekiti - The losing Alliance for Democracy Party (AD) 
has charged fraud in the election of the winner of the 
governorship in this, the newest and smallest Nigerian State. 
 AD charges that Governor Ayo Fayose of the Peoples 
Democratic Party (PDP) won with a forged official election 
victory certificate.  This past June, the tribunal had thrown 
out the AD suit on technical grounds, deciding that the AD 
gubernatorial challenger and his running mate, Niyi Adebayo 
and Paul Alabi, respectively, had not been properly joined as 
complainants in the suit.  Last week the Court of Appeal 
overturned the Tribunal's decision, again on a technicality, 
and restarted the judicial wrangling. 
 
 
3. (U) Anambra - In addition to the turmoil caused by the 
July attempted coup involving kidnapping of the newly elected 
governor at the direction of his political "godfather", 
Anambra State is also embroiled in a dispute in the Tribunal 
challenging the validity of the gubernatorial election 
itself.  The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has 
charged that PDP Governor Chris Ngige has stolen "the mandate 
of the people of Anambra."  Months after the elections and 
the swearing in of officials, officers of the Independent 
National Election Commission (INEC) are now coming forward to 
testify in court that they never signed nor certified 
documents declaring Ngige the winner. 
 
 
4. (U) Enugu - The Tribunal in Enugu has flip-flopped so many 
times in its decision on the APGA's challenge to the election 
of PDP Governor Chimaroke Nnamani that the President of the 
Court of Appeal in the capital, Abuja, has started action to 
try to move the legal proceedings there.  The suggested move 
has been challenged as unconstitutional since the Nigerian 
Constitution requires that the Tribunals be "established in 
each State of the Federation" and "have due regard to the 
proximity to and accessibility from the place where the 
election was held."  A decision is expected next week. 
 
 
5. (U) Akwa-Ibom - Dr. Ime Umanah's (All Nigeria Peoples 
Party - ANPP) challenge to the election of PDP Governor 
Victor Attah is apparently in legal limbo.  Umanah had 
charged that Attah was not eligible to run for governor since 
he had allegedly accepted an illegal contribution.  The 
tribunal dismissed the challenge on the grounds of 
insufficient showing of misconduct.  The case is on appeal 
and the National Judicial Council has entered the proceedings 
to investigate charges of possible misconduct by the Tribunal 
judges. 
 
 
6. (U) Bayelsa - The PDP has lost a challenge to one of the 
few National Assembly seats won by APGA.  Citing a procedural 
error, the Tribunal had decided in favor of the PDP.  The 
Court of Appeal, however, reversed the lower court's decision 
saying that the court could have exercised its discretion 
"and overlooked what was obviously a minor non-compliance." 
The PDP has re-filed its suit in the Tribunal. 
 
 
"Defending" human rights? 
 
 
7.  (C) Prominent attorney and co-founder of the Committee 
for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR), Femi Falana, along 
with another CDHR former official, Beko Kuti, are alleged to 
have recruited a gang of thugs ("area boys") to dislodge 
current CDHR officials and workers from the group's 
headquarters in Lagos.  The area boys are reported to have 
forced entry into the CDHR offices, destroyed equipment and 
furniture and severely beaten staff.  Police who were called 
to the scene reportedly did nothing to stop the attack, 
supposedly because they had been bought off by Falana and 
Kuti.  Local media have reported that Falana and Kuti refuse 
to accept that they were not re-elected to head the 
influential, nationwide organization and have decided to take 
back control by force.  (Comment.  Falana, like several other 
leaders of NGOs that led the fight against military rulers 
over the past decades, saw his influence waning as democracy 
struggled to take root and decided to turn to politics as a 
way to remain in the limelight.  In the last election, Falana 
ran and lost as the Presidential candidate of the National 
Conscience Party.  CDHR is in turmoil, but still functioning 
and has asked a group of prominent persons, including lawyer, 
activist and former Presidential candidate, Gani Fawehinmi, 
to look into the matter.  No charges of any kind have been 
filed against Falana or Kuti.) 
GREGOIRE