Oni’s wild goose chase

Former Governor of Ekiti State, Segun Oni

 

THE disgraced and illegitimate former Governor of Ekiti State, Segun Oni, appears not to care how many times he bites the dust. Mr. Oni indeed delightfully epitomises the aphorism that he who is down, needs fear no fall, as he engages in stunts that shred his already tattered reputation. The tragedy however is that he always tries to smear one public institution or another in his free falls. During the election it was the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and its officials that his actions endangered; now that a stolen mandate has been retrieved from him, it is the courts that he is seeking to put to shame and ridicule.

In pursuit of his inordinate ambitions, Mr Oni tried to pull the wool over the eyes of the Court of Appeal sitting in Ado-Ekiti by asking the court to reverse the judgment delivered by the Court of Appeal that sat in Ilorin. Thankfully, the share absurdity of this abuse of the process of the court has been pronounced by the Court of Appeal while dismissing the case. The appeal panel was chaired by Justice Tijani Abdullahi, with such other members as Justices Musa Abba-Aji, M.O. Kekere-Ekun, Ismaya Mohammed and R.C. Agbo. The learned justices emphasised that the matter should not have come before them in the first place.

We recall that in a well considered judgment, the Court of Appeal sitting in Ilorin on October 15, 2010, sacked Mr Oni from the Ekiti State Government House, and returned the incumbent governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, as the validly elected governor of the state. The judgment, delivered by a panel headed by Justice Ayo Salami, was hailed by all and sundry as bold, incisive and fair; and a clear message against those who rely on rigging to get to power; that they will ultimately lose it. We also recall that the Court of Appeal was then the final court for governorship election petitions, and so the sour grape of Mr. Oni ended there.

Having exhausted the judicial process, Mr Oni then resorted to shenanigans, as he sought with other desperate interests to cast aspersion on the integrity of the learned justices that sat on the appeal, particularly Justice Salami. While the National Judicial Council (NJC) has not found any merit in the petition by Mr. Oni against the learned justices; he still went ahead to ask for a review of the judgment on the grounds of bias on the part of the panel members. To further show the absurdity of his reasoning, Mr. Oni made his application for a review in the Ado-Ekiti division of the Court of Appeal, instead of the Ilorin division, where the appeal was heard and the judgment delivered.

Despite the public odium that greeted Mr. Oni’s latest attempt to ridicule the judiciary, he was reported to be interested in further appealing to the Supreme Court. While he is entitled to further his show of shame, we are of the opinion that this further attempt should be quickly rebuffed by the court, to send a clear message that the abuse of the courts cannot be tolerated by the highest court in the land. In furthering his plans, we hope that Mr. Oni pauses to weigh wherein lay the interests of the people of Ekiti State in this charade. Considering his days in office, we doubt whether Mr. Oni would have the courage to parade the streets of Ekiti as a democratic governor were he to be given the opportunity by this means. We doubt.