Ade Adesomoju, Abuja The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, said on Sunday that he had yet to offer any legal opinion on the developments which followed the June 27 judgment that sacked Governor Okezie Ikpeazu. The minister, through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Salihu Isah, asked parties to the case to await decisions of the court. Justice Abang had sacked Ikpeazu for allegedly disclosing false information in relation to his tax clearance details to the Independent National Electoral Commission in his form nominating him as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party for the last year’s governorship election in the state. The judge, also in the said judgment, ordered the governor’s foremost rival who was the first runner-up in the primary that produced Ikpeazu as the candidate of the PDP, Mr. Uche Ogah, to takeover. The judge held that Ikpeazu was not qualified to be PDP’s candidate having disclosed false information to INEC in violation of his party’s election guideliness and the Electoral Act and thereby ordered that Ogah be sworn in as governor in Ikpeazu’s stead. This elicited tension and a stalemate situation in the state when on Wednesday, the INEC, acting on the judgment, issued a certificate of return to Ogah, paving the way for him to be sworn in as governor. Malami, in the statement issued by his media aide on Sunday, denied having a hand in INEC’s decision to issue a certificate of return to Ogah. Isah said the INEC had yet to seek the minister’s opinion on the issue and that the minister had yet to offer any. He described as “crass lies” alleged insinuations “being peddled and disseminated by a cross- section of Nigerians and the various media platforms that the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation is behind the legal logjam over the Abia state governorship seat.”

Ogah all the way, we want him in abia as governor.