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Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia has said that Uche Ogah is desperate to become governor so as to get immunity against subsisting criminal charges against him.
Governor Ikpeazu says Uche Oga has crimes to answer for.
Punch reports that Ikpeazu made the statement in reaction to the issuance of Certificate of Return to Uche Ogah by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“We are baffled by the urgency and the desperation to bounce into the government and when put side by side with the various criminal charges which border on different kinds of things which are subsisting in various courts in Lagos State against this same person, it becomes a little bit clearer why the desperation in the first place; (it’s) probably just to get a veil of immunity just to run away from the certainty of the court’s decision for or against him as it were.
What is on trial is our democracy; it is not about me as a person, but it is about the will of the people of Abia State. And why it is very difficult for the Abia people to accept it is that everyone knows that I have been working for the government in this environment.
My last duty post was (in) the Abia State Environmental Protection agency and for anybody to say that I have problems with my tax, it will be strange to our people because they know I was working for the government and the government was paying me.
The Board of Internal Revenue (BIR), whose duty it is to assess and levy tax has come out with the document and said it was issued by them and if there is any question to be asked, the BIR is the one to answer the question.
I want to assure the people that this illegality will not stand but I will test it through the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.
I want to dissuade the rumours that are making the round that some people are sponsoring this injustice against our state because we understand the current position of the government at the federal level against corruption and it cannot support somebody battling to wear the veil of immunity just because the person wants to run away from the certainty of justice.
Even if it was a death sentence that was passed on me, I don’t think I deserved to be executed without my right of appeal and that right is undeniable and fundamental,” he said.
Meanwhile, Barrister Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, a prominent lawyer based in Lagos has revealed an alleged grand plan and agreement between governor-elect of Abia state, Uche Ogah, and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He alleged that the ruling party and President Muhammadu Buhari are creating a dangerous precedence with their alleged pressure on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to issue certificate of return to Ogah.
The sitting governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, had appealed the ruling of a court which removed him from office and ordered that Ogah be immediately given a certificate of return.
Ogah was to be sworn–in as governor on Thursday but a court in Abia stopped the exercise with an injunction. Ikpeazu also maintained that he remained the governor. But Adegboruwa, in a statement reported by Vanguard, wondered why the rush to get Ogah sworn-in when there was an appeal against the court ruling.
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