BUHARI'S SUIT CONTINUES, HE IS UPBEAT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 000523

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/24/2014
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM NI
SUBJECT: BUHARI'S SUIT CONTINUES, HE IS UPBEAT


CLASSIFIED BY CDA RICK ROBERTS FOR REASONS 1.5 (b) AND (d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: Hearings continue at the Court of Appeals in
ANPP candidate Buhari's legal challenge to Obasanjo's
election as president, and Buhari is happy with how the
election tribunal is going. He and most observers at the
trial believe the evidence being presented is helping his
case, and a different election tribunal this week threw out
the April 2003 election of the Adamawa state governor, a PDP
protege of VP Atiku in Atiku's home state, saying that no
proper elections had been held there. According to Buhari's
attorneys, they are wrapping up testimony and have presented
evidence that either the elections or the announced results
were flawed in at least 18 of Nigeria's 36 states. The ANPP
could wrap up its case in the next three to four weeks and
then attorneys for Obasanjo and the "Independent National
Electoral Commission" (INEC) will have a chance to present
witnesses in rebuttal. Most observers expect a final
decision in this tribunal sometime in the July-August
timeframe. END SUMMARY.

--------------
NWODO'S DAY IN COURT
--------------


2. (U) The ANPP election petition against President Obasanjo,
Vice President Atiku and INEC over the conduct of the April
2003 elections continues this week with testimony from Cross
Rivers and Enugu states. The highlight came on March 24 when
another losing presidential aspirant, former Information
Minister John Nwodo, took the stand. Nwodo was forced to
wait patiently while Obasanjo's attorney Afe Babalola
objected to various parts of his testimony. After the
session, Nwodo told Poloff that he could easily smile and
wait since he "knew the justices would admit the evidence."
An attorney himself, Nwodo was one of the most effective
witnesses to date, presenting a detailed description of
events leading up to the 19 April Presidential election.


3. (C) The judges, down to a panel of four now that Justice
Oguntade has been moved to the Supreme Court, have shown
signs of weariness but still appreciate the levity produced
by the verbal sparring among the attorneys and witnesses. An
attorney himself, Nwodo limited his testimony to events in
his home area, and countered the assertions by the attorneys
for the President and for INEC that he was not being truthful
in his testimony. Nwodo began by claiming that Enugu state
voters could only pick up their voter cards "at the houses of
known PDP supporters." Even he could not get his own card.
Nwodo claimed the PDP Deputy Governor set up office in Enugu
state's INEC headquarters and posted police and young men
there that Nwodo said he "believed were PDP party thugs."


4. (U) Nwodo said he had objected to many of the names on the
list of INEC-appointed staff because it included known PDP
supporters, among them three first cousins of the Deputy
Governor. Nwodo claimed the level of violence in the April
12 National Assembly election contributed to a low turnout at
the April 19 President, VP and Governors election, but said
that it did not matter since "no elections officials were at
the polls in my Local Government Area" on April 19. His team
visited each of the 192 polling sites and he personally
visited 43; not one polling site was in operation.
Similarly, he said there was no activity at the 20 collation
centers at the end of the day, but results were announced on
the radio while they were still making rounds of the centers.


5. (U) Nwodo told the court he had personally witnessed three
shootings during the April 12 election and made a video that
showed ballot stuffing, ballot boxes being stolen, and
interviews with elections officials who said their materials
had been confiscated by the police. The Deputy Governor came
to his compound with a group of police at the end of the
National Assembly elections and demanded that he surrender
the video tape, Nwodo claimed. Unable to gain access to the
Nwodo family compound, the police began firing into the
compound and continued firing for "nearly two hours." Five
of his family members were wounded. "They only stopped when
the villagers organized to confront them, forcing the Deputy
Governor and the police to abandon the bus they arrived in."
Nwodo said that the "burnt out carcass" of the bus remains in
front of his compound to this day.


6. (U) Obasanjo's attorney Babalola asked Nwodo why he had
not filed a complaint. Nwodo said he had filed a complaint
with the Enugu police commissioner and copied it to the GON's
Inspector General of Police and the GON's INEC Chairman along
with copies of his video. "Until now, the police have not
responded," he averred. Nwodo was effective at countering
the assertions by the attorneys for the President and for
INEC that he was not being truthful in his testimony. At one
point, a frustrated Babalola complained about one of Nwodo's
responses and told the Justices, "That's OK. We can amend
the responses later." And after Babalola accused Nwodo of
giving false testimony, Nwodo responded that as a sworn
officer of the court, under oath, and married to a judge, it
would be impossible for him to lie. Eliciting laughter from
the entire room, Tambaye asked Nwodo to put his responses in
"simple grammar" since the Justices were recording the
proceedings in longhand.

-------------- --------------
ADAMAWA'S TRIBUNAL THROWS OUT THE GOVERNOR ELECTION THERE
-------------- --------------


7. (C) The mood in the court was already one of anticipation,
as everyone awaited word of the outcome of the ANPP's case
against the gubernatorial elections in Adamawa, the VP
Atiku's home state. The courtroom was full, as it has been
most days since the proceedings began several months ago.
Buhari's attorneys told Poloff they are wrapping up testimony
and have presented evidence that either the elections or the
announced results were flawed in at least 18 states. Having
almost completed the testimony about non-voting and security
issues, they said they will turn to presenting some of the
most egregious examples of clear manipulation of the results
by INEC. They could wrap up the case in the next three to
four weeks, after which the President's attorneys will have a
chance to present testimony to support their pleadings. Most
observers expect a final decision in this tribunal sometime
in the July-August timeframe and the Supreme Court should not
deliberate long, as an appeal would be limited to the
technical aspects of the case.


8. (C) As reports from Adamawa indicated the election of the
PDP governor had been overturned, an unusually exuberant
Buhari told Poloff he was happy that the legal process was
finally starting to produce some results. Buhari said he
remained concerned about "pressure and threats" on the judges
in the tribunal hearing his case against the elections.


9. (C) COMMENT: Buhari and his team seem to sense that the
end of the trial is approaching and to be catching their
second wind in a process that could last for nearly half of
Obasanjo's term before the issues of his election are
resolved. Committed, for now, to the legal process, Buhari
seems to be relishing the limelight, and is as anxious for
the vindication as he is for overturning the election. With
the Adamawa decision in, the ANPP and Buhari think that the
tide has turned and that many more options favorable to their
position will present themselves in the near future. They
hope to travel to Washington, in part to gain USG views on
options.
ROBERTS