The Ekiti State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has petitioned the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, asking him to drop a human rights activists, Mr. Femi Falana, as lawyer to INEC.



The state Chairman of the PDP, Chief Bola Olu-Ojo, who stated this during a press briefing in Ado-Ekiti on Tuesday, described the engagement of Falana as INEC’s lawyer in the tenure elongation case involving Governor Segun Oni as inappropriate.



Olu-Ojo said that Falana, who is the national chairman of the National Conscience Party, was sympathetic to the governorship ambition of the Action Congress of Nigeria governorship candidate in Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.



The PDP chairman said that INEC had the right to pick any lawyer to represent its interest but stated that Falana, being a partisan politician, would not represent the neutrality of INEC in the case against Oni.



But Falana has faulted the claim of the PDP in a statement made available to one of our correspondents on Tuesday.



He said, “Since I am not a member of the Panel of the Justices of the Court of Appeal that would determine the appeal on tenure elongation the petition of the PDP is bunkum, mischievous and diversionary. It is common knowledge that the lawyer who represented Professor Maurice Iwu-led INEC at the Federal High Court supported tenure elongation. The PDP never protested.



“In its undiluted opportunism the PDP government in Ekiti State recently engaged my services to handle the appeal filed by ex-Governor Ayo Fayose against his impeachment at the Court of Appeal.



“Notwithstanding our profound ideological differences I handled the brief to the satisfaction of the PDP. Since the NCP headed by me is not a beneficiary of tenure elongation, there can be no conflict of interest whatsoever with respect to my decision to handle the appeal for INEC at the Court of Appeal.



“However, if the PDP is convinced that I have run fowl of the ethics of the legal profession it should direct its grouse to the disciplinary committee of the Nigeria Bar Association and not engage in puerile blackmail aimed at violating the constitutional right of INEC to be defended by a lawyer of its choice.



It is too late in the day for charlatans of questionable pedigree to divert my attention for defending the letter and spirit of the Constitution on tenure elongation.”





http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201009290552451

INEC does not believe in tenure elongation for Oni et al, so it is narutal to pick a lawyer like Falana who believes in its cause or do you pick a lawyer who do not beleive in your case? Oni and Ekiti PDP should stop being petty. A lawyer can only argue his client’s brief not his. The issue is not partisan now, it is what INEC thinks is the proper interpretation of the law as regards Oni’s tenure.