Why I returned to S’Court against Suswam –Ugbah
From: IHEANACHO NWOSU, Abuja
Tuesday, May 15 , 2012
Ugbah
The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) governorship candidate in Benue State, Professor Steve Ugbah, in this chat explains why his party returned to the Supreme Court for the third time against Governor Gabriel Suswam. He also clarified other issues, especially his recent participation in a thanksgiving organised by the PDP members, the violence in the state and his mortgage challenge in United States.
You’ve gone back to the Supreme court again. Why and did you take into consideration the apex court’s ruling on Borno before filing your suit?
I want to start by appreciating my supporters in Benue, who still continue to stand behind us as we engage in the process of retrieving our stolen mandate.
This is the third time we are going to be appearing at the Supreme Court. We are supremely confident about our chances at the Supreme Court. We know the Supreme Court is the last bus stop and because of the confidence that we have in the legal process, we are not worried.
Everyone likes to mention the Borno case without reading through the judgment. Because it is convenient too to use dismissed cases. But we know that the Borno case and our case, the difference is like the night and day. We have satisfied every single technical aspect of prosecuting our case. From timeline to filling the appropriate papers, we have not violated any aspect of the process. After the appeal Court judgment, we went to the Supreme Court within the statutory sixty days the lower court rendered its verdict.
The Supreme Court asked that our appeal be retried. Borno case didn’t go through the same process. So, how do you equate that with the case of Benue and use that as a basis for dismissing my case? So, our case is quite different from the Borno case and that is what we are going to the Supreme Court to prove.
What if at the end of the day, maybe the Supreme Court orders the Appeal Court to retry the case, do you still have confidence in the court given the way it handled your case in the past?
We are very confident in the judiciary in spite of some lapses; we have confidence even if the panel remains the same . Based on their rulings and proceeding, we don’t have any reason to doubt their competence. So, we are more than ready. We are hoping they will end our saga at the Supreme Court. I can’t dwell too much on this because our case is at the Supreme Court and I don’t want be prejudiced.
Recently at the thanksgiving in honour of Senator Barnabas Gemade, you embraced Governor Gabriel Suswam warmly . Many people interpreted that to mean an end to the governorship dispute is in sight. So, is it ok to assume that it was a wrong interpretation?
Absolutely, it was a wrong interpretation. It wasn’t even a birthday party; it was a thanksgiving service. I wasn’t invited, but I chose to attend. It is characteristic of me and I didn’t see anything wrong in attending a thanksgiving mass for someone I consider an elder. I have known Senator Gemade even though we are in opposing camps, there is absolutely no reason why I should hate the man.
I attended Professor Saror Daniel’s 70th birthday recently. Prof Saror ran to wrest the governorship seat from me. Should I have refused to attend? I understand the anxiety of my support base. I understand how my supporters will feel that I shouldn’t have embraced Suswam because
of the beatings and harassment they have received from the governor’s aides.
But we have to play politics the different way. You don’t have to kill someone or burn a house to win an election. Besides, this election has gone out of the field. It is now in the court and we can’t influence the outcome of the verdict. At no time in the church did I indicate that we are going to relinquish the governorship seat.
At another conference where Suswam was invited, we met and embraced. It is a pity that politics has been polluted.
Many feel this way because of the rumours that elders have been mounting pressure on you to give up the legal battle, what is the correct position?
Far from it. I have been told that meetings have been arranged where I will meet with the elders in my own zone. I have never attended any of those meetings and I am not going to attend. And no one has come to me yet to say, will you consider stopping this battle?. So, I understand why people feel the way they feel. But my own assurance to them is that, we are pursuing our mandate for good. Our case is even more alive today than it was before. We have the confidence that we will prevail in the end and that end is not too far from now.
Talking about violence and killings what is your response to claims in the public domain that you and your party instigated them?
I am hearing about this for the first time. On Sunday, May 13, we celebrated the first anniversary of the death of one of your colleagues, Mr. Charles Ayede who was my senior media aide. He was assassinated. They told us it was armed robbers.
In my own local government, Ugbah, one of my strongest supporters was shot dead in cold blood along with his brother in his house. Other people were killed within the same area. On the day of the burial, we buried seven corpses. This is not even the silent killings in the entire place. I am the one who masterminded my own people to be killed; I am the cause of their death because I dared to contest the elections. I am the one who orchestrated to go and desecrate a church.
Since the PDP didn’t allow me to attend a mass that was supposed to be done in my honour, I decided to attend their own church service to see how much violence will be melted out on me. A night before my thanksgiving service, PDP thugs came to the venue, destroyed the whole place and even beat up the priests in my own town. Am I not entitled to attend a church service or a thanksgiving mass all because I contested an election? Everything that is happening in Benue, I caused it because I dared to contest an election. I dared to challenge the incompetence of the governor and I will do that again tomorrow and day after tomorrow because it is my right.
No one can stop me from exercising my constitutional rights. Nobody was born a governor or a senator. So, they cannot tell people not to contest because they don’t have a pedigree. Anyone can aspire to any political office in the land.
Prior to you joining the gubernatorial race, you were a close friend to the incumbent Governor Suswam; at what point did this relationship went sour? How true is the claim that you had a mortgage challenge in the America and it was Suswam that bailed you out and made it possible for you to return to this country?
Thank you very much for bring up this issue. I have heard those rumours all the same. The unfortunate thing is that the people here who chose to speak like that are very lazy. Things like mortgage are not secretive. I am even proud to have a mortgage because that is how businesses are conducted in well-organized societies. Even after completing the mortgage payment, you still have an obligation unlike here where people just buy houses by paying full cash with no other obligation.
For anyone to insinuate that I had a mortgage problem and Governor Suswam came to solve it for me, they should come and see the records.
Gabriel cannot solve my problems. I have been in the United States for over 40 years. You see, when we play politics and we want to run people down, these are what we do. I can tell you that I know Gabriel very well. I know him by name and association. I met him shortly after he was elected as a member of the House of Representatives. He came and visited my house in the United States with some delegates. I hosted him in my house and drove him in my car. I entertained them to the best of my ability.
By the way, Suswam was my younger brother’s classmate in school. Down
the line, Suswam now decided to run for governor. I was even
pressurized by my friends in 2005 to run for governor. I said no that
I wasn’t going to run. I supported Suswan then and I saw him emerged
as the governor. We supported him then because we imagined that if he
could survive as a House of Representatives member, he would
replicate the same feat in Benue State. Just before the elections,
Suswam was the one that took me to the airport in Abuja. Maybe you can
ask him how much he supported me with.
When people want to be obnoxious, they peddle all kinds of stories. I
am not swayed by all their pranks. I made money at a very young age .
At the age of 16 and 17, I was already giving out money in millions.
I thought that Suswam had an opportunity to serve, but he failed
people and that is why I emerged again as candidate which I
voluntarily withdrew from in 2005. I didn’t come in to mess Suswam up;
I came because people wanted to see a change and they saw me as that
agent of change. That is why I am pursuing my mandate to its logical
conclusion. I could have backed down by negotiating with Suswam,
probably take some money and run away, but I didn’t.
Did he ever make any such offer to you?
No, he never did. Maybe he did to other people, but not to me. No one
has had the courage to come and make such offers to me because I am
not interested. I have not shown any interest in negotiating. The only
thing I want to negotiate is my mandate. Give it back and then we will
talk. I didn’t come to run for the governorship seat to build estates
for myself or fly planes. I am not looking for a job because I had a
job and I rose to the highest rant as an academia. So, what would be
so attractive to me to come here and play games with people’s lives?
Any last word for your supporters?
I am interested in changing lives, lifting people up and hope. That
is why I came into this race. We were able to transform the political
landscape in the state in just two months and people bought into our
ideas. My supporters should be rest assured that no amount of
intimidation or blackmail will make me give up the mandate. We will
retrieve our mandate and give Benue people the life they deserve. My
supporters should stand firm and law-abiding because everything is
going to be fine. We will overcome .
