SOUTHERN SNAPSHOTS - OCTOBER 14 TO 24, 2003

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