Govs should create vigilante commissions to tackle insecurity – Bauchi PDP legal adviser
The Legal Adviser of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party in Bauchi State, Shipi Rabo, speaks with ARMSTRONG BAKAM on the recent judgments of the Supreme Court which affirmed the victory of Senator Bala Mohammed, among other issues.
How will you describe the Supreme Court judgments on the 2023 general elections?
I feel that the judiciary has redeemed itself from the several accusations that have been made against it over time. Not just from the Supreme Court but from the tribunal. There were many outstanding judgments from the tribunal. I am very impressed with the tribunals, the Court of Appeal up to the Supreme Court, although there were some complaints here and there about the Court of Appeal’s judgment but the general impression is that the judiciary has delivered this time around.
Many people have alleged that some of the judgments were for the highest bidders. Do you share this thought?
I don’t really think that is the position; I don’t believe that. I am one of the stakeholders in the judiciary; I have always believed in the judiciary, and there’s nowhere you can say that this place is 100 per cent good, you will always find a few instances that are not really good but I believe in the judiciary and I don’t believe that judgments are for the highest bidders whether in the past or now.
Are you saying that because you’re a legal practitioner or because the judgment was in your favour?
No! I think I am a stakeholder in the administration of justice; As a matter of fact, I have been part of the judiciary. There may be one or two mistakes but for you to generalize it that it is for the highest bidder, that is not what I subscribe to. Even when we are not winning, I am a lawyer with 18 years in practice, and I have lost cases. It is not just when I win cases that I will say that justice is not for the highest bidder. We sometimes complain when it doesn’t go our way but I don’t generally see it as the highest bidder. It is not a money thing. Yes, there would be mistakes here and there, but I don’t see it from a money perspective.
The Supreme Court, while delivering judgment in the governorship election case in Plateau State, said the Court of Appeal erred, insisting that it was not supposed to interfere in political party matters. What now happens to the National and State Assemblies seats that were taken from the PDP and given to the APC?
The position of the court has always been that inter-party affairs should not be interfered with; it’s like your own house, nobody should just come there and interfere in what is happening there because it is an in-house thing. That has always been the position, and we have always told people that any other decision contrary to that is wrong because it’s already a Supreme Court decision before these returned cases. So, for the Supreme Court to stand its ground and say that’s the position of the law, we are happy with that. Now, on the issue of those National and State Assembly lawmakers who lost their seats by virtue of the judgment of the Court of Appeal, it is rather an unfortunate development.
By our jurisprudence, the Court of Appeal is our final court to hear any matter as regards State and National Assembly matters. So, the fact that it’s the final court that gave that judgment, by law, they don’t have any other thing to do. The most lawyers will try to do is to try to go and interpret the judgment that was already given but the interpretation of judgment is not part of our law. I’ve personally done one or two cases like that, and even if you do it, it will bounce back on you. They might slam a cost against the lawyer who filed the case. So, it’s rather an unfortunate decision.
But don’t you think this will set a bad precedence for the future because lawyers capitalise on such Appeal Court judgments and make reference to past rulings in arguing their case?
One of the biggest mistakes the Court of Appeal made, in my opinion, is that even when they were deciding those cases, there were many lawyers that kept citing Supreme Court authorities that it is an intra-party affair, they’re not supposed to intervene in those matters but they refuse to hear those arguments. The Court of Appeal should learn to always refer itself to the Apex Court because the Supreme Court is ahead of the Court of Appeal. So, that was the area of confusion. Had it been that they adhered to cases that were decided by the Supreme Court, they would have not ended in this mess.
In Bauchi State, many judgments were made on cases involving different election positions in the state. What’s your general opinion on these cases that were decided?
The biggest case that was in our favour was the governorship. Personally, I was of the opinion that it was a needless case in the first place because it was an election that we won overwhelmingly. We won with a difference of about 100,000 votes against our closest rival, the APC. If you check all the grounds of the appeals, they were not really challenging the scores and the validity of those votes; what they were just trying to say was that some booklets were not filled. The appeal from the onset was needless but come to think of it, we thank God because it was an affirmation of what really happened.
I think that we can hardly complain about any of the judgments, we take them with gratitude and we are okay. In the three cases that the court ordered that there should be a rerun, as a party, we are ready and are preparing and God willing, we will go and take back our seats at the polling units.
How optimistic are you that you’ll win the rerun elections given the fact that both the Speaker and his deputy were sacked by the court?
We are optimistic because if you look at the polling units, they are not many, they are between 10 and 13 polling units and we were already winning. You can find out that in some places, we are leading with more than 2,000 votes and these polling units are our strongholds. So, we don’t have any problem; I am very optimistic. I know the entire polling units one after the other and I know what transpired in those polling units. We are very optimistic that we are going to win all the rerun elections.
In your recent reaction to the Supreme Court judgment which affirmed the Bauchi State governor’s election, you mocked the APC and told them to go and put their house in order and you said that elections were not won at the courts but at the polling units. What did you mean by that?
If you really want to win elections, go to the grassroots, woo them, and do what you are supposed to do; put your house in order, arrange yourselves, mobilise yourselves, and look for votes. It is not when you lose an election with more than 100,000 votes that you’ll go to the courts and pray that the courts will just give you victory. I don’t know from where the courts will just get those votes and say that you are the winner. This is what the Supreme Court had succeeded in proving to Nigerians like the Kano State governorship election case. You cannot lose a case, then you go to court and say that a particular person is coming (in as governor). How can he come when he did not win the election? He cannot come.
The only way for him to come is for him to win at the polling units. What I was trying to tell them is that they should be ready to go and contest any election and win that election. They should give us stiff competition, but even at that, we will still win the next election. This is because, in Bauchi State, we have a very good leader in the governor; he is a very good leader because you’ll see that everything he’s trying to do is to give us more strength, he’s trying his best possible to reorganise this house to woo voters and to show to the people of Bauchi State that we are working. So, if they really want to give us a stiff contest, they should prepare and do things the way we are doing.
What were some of the difficulties you encountered while trying to get justice throughout the court processes?
Election matters are time bound and you are supposed to file your processes as and when due. My fear was for us not to miss any of those dates and this was because there were many cases. At the tribunal, there were 43 cases. So, the cases were many and we had to keep up to as many cases as possible and you were dealing with a lot of lawyers and a lot of court administrators. So, getting all these things to fall in place was not really easy like that. It was really difficult; there were many days that we had to stay without sleeping. Sometimes, a group of lawyers will call you that tomorrow will be the last day of filing and you’re supposed to get this and that documents from INEC and the rest. We had to work round the clock to make it possible.
In the course of these cases, you had causes to be away from your family for many days and weeks. How did they cope?
I really thank God for the understanding my family had with me throughout this process from March last year when the elections were conducted till now. They were very understanding and they knew it was a mission that I had to accomplish. So, they were by my side. They were always calling me and we kept communicating throughout from Bauchi to Jos and to Abuja. It was not really easy because this was the first time I was leaving my family for this long period, but at the end of the day, it was worth it and I am now back home to them.
Now that you have the victory, what should the people of Bauchi expect from the PDP-led government?
They should expect more services, more work, and more dedication to them. Our prayer is that in 2024, we will do all we can to make life a little bit bearable for the people of Bauchi State.
What’s your general assessment of the administration of President Bola Tinubu?
I have the same opinion as that of my governor, a leader is a leader. I’m a Christian and the Bible says that we should pray for our leaders; we should respect them because they are given by God. Whether they’re in my party or not in my party, my responsibility is to pray and wish them well. When Tinubu succeeds, all of us and Nigeria succeed. So, we’re praying for him. The same way I’m praying for my Governor, the same way I’m praying for him. I don’t want us to politicise this particular thing. I know we are party members, I’m a party official, but the truth is that the success of Nigeria is our success. I urge Nigerians to learn to pray for their leaders.
There is an increase in security challenges across many parts of the country with kidnappings and killings of the victims as we’ve seen in the nation’s capital and general insecurity. What’s your view about what is happening?
I think the government should do more; it’s not an excuse that you are trying but they should do more because the primary objective of a government is to protect lives and property of its citizens. At this point, I want to give it to my governor, Senator Bala Mohammed; he’s doing everything possible in that regard. I believe if we have competent people at the helm of affairs like him, they will do it, my Governor is doing it. The last time I met him, he was talking about his plans to establish a commission for vigilantes, they’re trying to send a law to the Assembly in that regard, I don’t know what they will name it but these are geared towards securing the lives and property of the people. If the Federal Government cannot do it, state governors should start doing it. We should secure the lives and property of our people.
Corruption in Nigeria appears to be difficult to tackle. What is your take on this?
It’s really very disgusting and it’s a problem that is really eating deep into the Nigerian fabrics. I feel very ashamed when we talk about corruption. And sometimes, when you talk about corruption, people just focus on the federal level alone, but it’s unfortunate that there’s corruption everywhere in Nigeria. Even the lawyers, if you go to the court, a small service a court bailiff will render to you, he wants you to give him more money. Everybody wants money; everybody wants to collect more money from where he has not sown. It is very unfortunate.
A lot of times, people take time to talk about corruption at the top, but it’s like Nigerians love corruption. One of the biggest predicaments that I have as the PDP Legal Adviser is that the moment I got into that office, everybody around me expected me to give them money. Everybody around me expected me to give them money not minding where I would get that money from. So, even the common man in Nigeria is pushing a politician to be corrupt. I think even when the President and governors are fighting to come out of this corruption, the ordinary man is pushing the politicians to be more corrupt.
Immediately you become something, they’ll tell you to come to the village and they’ll give you a chieftaincy title. These are aimed at encouraging corruption. I am not really happy as a Nigerian, and corruption is really costing us a lot. In fact, it is one of the major factors why we are at the level we are at the moment as a nation. I pray that President Tinubu will continue in the same way he is going to fight corruption and we will see some improvements.
