Those who lost out following the sacking of some governors on Friday did not let go without a fight.
As news of the Supreme Court judgment that removed five governors filtered into Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, last Friday, the just removed governor of the state, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris, and his associates  moved quickly for damage control.

Idris, who had served as governor of the confluence state for eight years with a bonus of another eight months, immediately rallied supporters for the inauguration into office of Alhaji Idris Wada, who had won the re-scheduled election, last December, on the ticket of the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP.

Wada, a pilot, is also a brother- in-law to Idris and was seen as a fitting successor following the falling out of favour of Idris’ earlier choice of a successor, Alhaji Isa Jibrin, popularly known as Echocho.

Idris had invited the state Chief Judge, Justice Nasir Ajanah, to perform the ceremony and the latter promptly honoured the invitation but came, remarkably, without his ceremonial robe as was expected.

On arrival, Ajanah sidestepped the crowd that had gathered at the chambers of the Governor’s Office for the inauguration and proceeded to an inner office where he conferred with Idris. Whatever was the subject of their discussion remains a mystery, but Ajanah walked briskly out of the premises.

Subsequent efforts to get him proved fruitless as the Chief Judge could not be reached despite desperate efforts by government officials. His phone was equally not available.

While out of circulation Ajanah was believed to have made contact with Abuja on the developments in Kogi from where he was believed to have received contrary instructions.

He perhaps may have gotten word of the Federal Government’s reaction articulated through the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Adoke, SAN. In it, the Federal Government gave its commitment to give effect to the ruling which remarkably did not include a consequential order.

Indeed, in Adamawa State, which was equally affected by the ruling, former Governor Murtala Nyako was reported to have also initially dismissed the judgment upon the advice of aides on the basis of the absence of a consequential order.
In his reaction, Adoke had directed the Chief Judges of the five states affected by the judgment to swear in the Speakers of the State Houses of Assembly.

“The Federal Government acknowledges the judgment of the Supreme Court and, in line with the provisions of Section 191(2) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, calls on the Honourable Speakers of the State Houses of Assembly of the affected states to take over the governance of their respective states pending the conduct of fresh governorship elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

“The Inspector-General of Police and other law enforcement agencies have been directed to put in place  appropriate security measures to ensure orderly transition and to avoid any breach of the peace.

...the sacked governors

“The Federal Government of Nigeria remains committed to the observance of the rule of law in all parts of the federation and therefore calls on the political leadership in the affected states to give full effect to the judgment of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.”

The five former governors affected by the judgment are Idris (Kogi), Liyel Imoke (Cross River),  Nyako (Adamawa), Timipre Sylva (Bayelsa) and Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto).

With the crowd in the Kogi  governor’s chamber beginning to wonder over what was amiss as the Chief Judge had remained elusive for hours, Government House officials in Lokoja conscripted the President of the state’s Customary Court of Appeal, Ibrahim Shuaibu.

As the proceedings were about to commence, some members of the Kogi State House of Assembly, as if prompted, began to walk out. Their grouse was that they were not sufficiently carried along by the ousted governor in the inauguration process. Whether it was a delay tactics or not to scuttle the inauguration now remains a mystery because, at about the same time, the state Chief Judge was perfecting the way for the inauguration of the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Abdullahi Bello.

The legislators were eventually pacified and the process was allowed to proceed. As the inauguration of “Gov. Wada” ended, news started filtering out that the Chief Judge, who had been missing, had surfaced in the judiciary complex and was demanding that the Speaker should see him urgently.

Words soon leaked out to officials of the former Idris administration that the Chief Judge was about to inaugurate the Speaker as acting governor. It was a development that the political masters never bargained for. In one way or the other, officials in the Government House sought to delay the Speaker from exiting the complex as they wondered what to do.

Meanwhile, in the judiciary complex, not too far away from the Government House, words passed round among those present that the Speaker was being detained by officials of the just exited Idris government as they sought to prevent the emergence of a man they never bargained for to take control of the administration of the state.

After some time, wise counsel prevailed and the Speaker, who had himself witnessed the inauguration of Wada as governor of the state, was “released” for his own inauguration as the acting governor.

The abortion of the Wada hour long governorship of Kogi State was, at the weekend, also being interpreted as good news for Jibrin Isa, who won the governorship, primary of the PDP before he was showed  aside by the Idris political machine.

Isa, who had been primed for the governorship by Idris prior to the January 2011 primary, fell out of favour with the Idris camp allegedly for allowing himself to become an in-law to Idris’ political enemy, Prince Abubakar Audu. Sequel to the January 9, 2011 primary,  Idris had discovered that Audu’s son was engaged to marry Isa’s daughter, a development that was said to have aroused the fury of the former governor prompting him to remove his support for Isa.

Following the decision of the PDP to conduct fresh primary, Isa resorted to the court where he is claiming, among others, that the decision was at variance with the provisions of the constitution and the Electoral Act which do not allow the substitution of a candidate.

The decision of the Kogi Chief Judge not to swear in Wada and to rather swear in the Speaker was said to have gladdened the hearts of Isa’s supporters as it gives them the promise of reclaiming the original ticket first won in the January 2011 primary.

The Chief Judge’s stance is, however, prompting insinuations of ethnic solidarity in the much ethnically split state. The Chief Judge, Ajanah; the Attorney General of the Federation, Adoke, who gave the Federal Government’s instruction that the Speaker should be sworn in; and the Speaker, Abdullahi, are all from the Igbira ethnic group in the state. It is God-send for the Igbiras, who, though the second highest ethnic group in the state, have since 1999 been locked out of the governorship by the dominant Igala ethnic stock.

The allegation among some government officials was of a conspiracy among the three Igbira functional officials to position one of their own as acting governor.

Whatever the ethnic insinuations, the development in Kogi was, at the weekend, being received with cheer by officials of the sacked Bayelsa administration who had relocated to Abuja ahead of the judgment.

“It is good news for us as it sends out the signal that the election of Wada was invalid meaning that the primary that produced him is invalid,” one close associate of former Governor Sylva told Sunday Vanguard.

It is a piece of news that the Sylva camp is desperate to hang on to. Like Isa, Sylva is in court arguing for the validation of his ticket obtained in the January 2011 primary before the deferment of the election.

Sylva, Sunday Vanguard learnt, would be approaching the Supreme Court tomorrow through his lawyers to seek for a declarative order that he be recognized as the PDP’s gubernatorial candidate in Bayelsa State in consonance with last Friday’s judgment.

“The Supreme Court cannot contradict itself; so what we want is for an order to declare Sylva the candidate in line with the judgment as delivered,” a top official of the just exited Sylva administration disclosed.

Sylva had been barred from participating in the November 2011 Bayelsa PDP gubernatorial primary, which was  won by Rep. Serikae Dickson, a close associate of President Goodluck Jonathan. It was upon his exclusion that the just removed governor proceeded to the courts to seek for the validation of his January 2011 ticket.

Whatever judicial efforts Sylva makes, his political problems, it was learnt, remain enduring. As his supporters grasped for fresh air, his opponents were also said to be promising to ensure that he is put out of reckoning in the coming election.

The options against Sylva could not be entirely deciphered, but one of the most brandished option is the use of the anti-corruption agencies to put him out of circulation.

Indeed, once the Supreme Court gave its judgment, on  Friday,  Abuja was full of speculations that the former governor had either been arrested or had deliberately gone underground. But both claims were being pooh-poohed by his associates  at press time.

However, should Sylva emerge victorious at the Supreme Court, one option said to be available to his enemies is the final option of using Timi Alaibe to counter him. Alaibe, who has been a recurring political factor in the state, was, like Sylva, barred from the rescheduled PDP primary last November, following his return to the party from the Labour Party on whose platform he had initially sought to fight Sylva for the governorship.

Should Sylva force himself to win at the Supreme Court, it was being suggested, at the weekend, that Alaibe, who is a more acceptable face to the presidency, could be made to resurrect his Labour Party ticket and then be supported to fight Sylva in the final showdown!

For the three other first term governors affected by the Supreme Court judgment: Imoke, Nyako and Wamakko, who won their PDP tickets with little opposition, the prospects for them remain bright.

Just hours after the judgment, local government chairmen in Cross River State threw their support behind Imoke  with a promise to back him to the tilt. However, the former governor’s  opponents faced with the overwhelming support, were on their part aiming to scupper his candidacy using the anti-corruption agencies. Associates of one of the notable opponents of the former governor, it was learnt was busy compiling evidence of what they promise to be the knockout blow against Imoke!