Lagos ACN Alerts On Attempt To Frustrate Its Appeal on Ikoyi/Obalende LCDA.

The Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria has raised alarm on the decision of the Lagos State Local Government Tribunal not to release the judgments on the Ikoyi/Obalende LCDA chairmanship tussle to its lawyers to enable them expedite further legal actions on the matter. The party says it suspects a subterranean move by the tribunal to frustrate further action by the party on the matter and says this is unacceptable to it. 

In a release in Lagos, signed by the Lagos State Publicity Secretary of the ACN, Joe Igbokwe, the party alerted that its team of lawyers have been making futile efforts to obtain the judgment briefs since after the verdict of the tribunal, which ruled in favour of the PDP, but to no avail. 

The party therefore says that it will do everything legally possible to appeal the verdict of the tribunal, which it has rejected for the ways and manners it arrived on the decision to disqualify ACN votes and allow PDP votes as a way of ruling in favour of the later in the matter. 

“We have said that we accept the verdict of the tribunal and we had equally signaled intention to appeal the verdict, which we rejected. We see this as normal and within out legal rights. We know that judgments in cases like these are made readily available to all parties involved for the purpose of assimilation and possible further actions. 

But we note that the tribunal has been frustrating every effort by our lawyers to obtain copies of the judgment and the latest effort this afternoon (15/10/2012) ended the way of several other efforts we have been making since the judgment was delivered. 

Whose interest is this tribunal serving in its decision not to release the copies of its judgment, we dare to ask? What exactly is the tribunal protecting in holding tight to such documents that should be public property once the judgment is delivered? 

“Lagos ACN suspects foul play, which makes us to wonder whether there is more to this case than meets the eye. We suspect that there is a deliberate effort to frustrate to employ illegal means to frustrate the appeal of the ACN on this matter and we state that this will never be acceptable to us. 

“For the avoidance of doubt, our great party rejects the verdict of the tribunal and we promise that we shall do everything within the ambits of the law to redress that judgment. We state that our decision to ensure that we further this promise is why we have appealed the judgment and we believe we are not making any extraordinary demand on the tribunal if we demand that they release, without delay, copies of their judgment to enable us proceed with our legal challenge of its judgment. 

We want to make it clear that nothing will prevent our decision to pursue an appeal of this judgment and we demand that whoever is obstructing justice in this case should give way for the normal wheel of justice to take its rightful course. 

We demand that the state elections tribunal release copies of its judgment without further delay if it is not on a deliberate mission to frustrate justice.”