With Supreme Court Judgment On Presidential Election, Any Hope For Barr. Edeoga In Enugu?

By Fidelis Umagba

Just like the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, the Supreme Court has upheld the election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, dismissing Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)and Mr. Peter Obi of Labour Party (LP)’s appeals for lack of merit.

The judgment of the Supreme Court was not surprising to discerning minds because the law is very clear and not a respecter of anyone irrespective of one’s status, tribe or religion. It was obvious from onset that Atiku and Obi had no incontrovertible evidence to prove their cases of alleged irregularities in the election and forgery against President Tinubu beyond reasonable doubt, instead they relied heavily on sentiments, emotions, social media lies and propaganda to pursue their cases, forgetting that such is not admissible in the court.

That was why after the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal that upheld the judgment of President Tinubu’s election, I wrote an article titled “With Presidential Election, Nnaji’s Judgments, Any Hope for Edeoga in Enugu? In the article, I painstakingly and factually dissected the Supreme Court judgment dismissing the appeal of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Enugu, Mr. Uche Nnaji against Governor Mbah’s election and the judgment of the Presidential Election Tribunal on President Tinubu’s election and reminded the social media lawyers/judges, analysts, hirelings and utopian mandate recovery seers of the Labour Party governorship candidate in Enugu State, Barr. Chijioke Edeoga, who have been running riot on social media platforms with all kinds of fabrications that suit their interests to wake up from their fantasies and illusions of victory at the tribunal and face the reality of impending and inevitable defeat of their paymaster.

They quickly called me names and dismissed my foretold and predicted defeat of their paymaster, Barr.Edeoga at the tribunal by Governor Mbah. I was not perturbed by their social media rantings and attacks on me and my article, because I know that emotions, sentiments and fixations have taken over them. Besides, social media propaganda and purveying lies is their stock in trade. Majority of them have been hypotenised and brainwashed with phantom promises and elusive victory. Many were also deceived and made to invest their lifetime savings in the Barr. Edeoga’s futile governorship project that is gradually coming to a permanent halt. So I understand their frustrations, antagonism and belligerence against Governor Mbah’s victory. They are not altruistic, but personal and selfish.

Despite all the tantrums thrown at me, my prediction of Barr. Edeoga’s impending defeat at the tribunal came to pass when Governor Mbah’s victory was upheld by the tribunal, that dismissed Barr. Edeoga’s case for lack of merit. Instead of accepting the tribunal judgment with equanimity, sheath the sword and support Governor Mbah to move the state forward, Barr. Edeoga and his social media minions took on the judiciary by peddling all sorts of libelous and unthinkable allegations and campaign of calumny against them using different pen names and fake social media accounts, thinking that people didn’t know their modus operandus.

As these were ongoing, Barr. Edeoga appealed the judgment of the tribunal that dismissed his case against Governor Mbah and upheld his election. As the judgment of the Appeal Tribunal is being awaited, Barr. Edeoga and social media mountebanks have continued to chase shadows on social media platforms by churning out, recycling and regurgitating different distorted articles, compromised stories, newspaper advertorials and others, hoping that such jaundiced and biased opinions and writings will influence the appeal judgment in his favour.

Now that the Supreme Court has delivered judgment on the appeals filed by Atiku and Obi dismissing them for lack of merit and upholding the election of President Tinubu, is Barr. Edeoga and his co-travellers still hoping for any miracle in his appeal, dissecting critically the judgment of the Supreme Court on Tinubu’s election? Your guess is as good as mine.

The takeaways from the Supreme Court judgment on Tinubu’s election are enough for Barr. Edeoga, his social media spin doctors and lawyers to know that the game is over. The takeaways include that the case of forgery must be proved beyond reasonable doubt. Neither Barr. Edeoga, his compromised NYSC nor any Court has proved beyond reasonable doubt any case of NYSC certificate forgery against Gov. Mbah. If Barr. Edeoga and NYSC cannot prove beyond reasonable doubt allegation of NYSC certificate forgery against Governor Mbah at the tribunal, is it in Appeal or Supreme Court that does not admit fresh evidence which Barr Edeoga and NYSC don’t have that they will prove it?

Another takeaway is that transmission of election results electronically is not compulsory. This should serve as an eye opener to those who have relied only on I-Rev portal to calculate or judge the overall results of the elections.

Just as I predicted after the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal judgment that came before Enugu State governorship election tribunal judgment that upheld Governor Mbah’s election, with precedents from the Supreme Court’s judgment that upheld the election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President of Nigeria, nothing different or new will come out from Barr. Edeoga’s appeal against Governor Mbah. Anyone including Barr. Edeoga and his cohorts thinking otherwise is living in fool’s paradise or self delusion.

I am not being preemptive of the impending judgment, but the truth is that the law is very lucid and the precedents are there already. There is nothing anybody can do, not even the magicians and soothsayers. I know that Barr. Edeoga and his social media attack dogs will come after me and this article as usual.That will not be new or unexpected. One thing I am assuring them and all those they have misled, duped, extorted and frustrated, especially from Enugu North Senatorial zone is that I will be vindicated at the end of the legal tussle.