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| Mr Uwemedimo Nwoko |
By Imam Bello
What could make a former Attorney-General remove his suit, fold his sleeves, tight the fist of his hand and get ready for a fight with the All Progressives Congress (APC) agents?
The agents were Tuesday carrying out the order of the Election Petition Tribunal to inspect, copy and scan ballot papers and other election materials used to declare former Governor Godswill Akpabio as winner of the March 28 Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial district election.
But, the former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Akwa Ibom State, Mr Uwemedimo Nwoko, lost his cool.
The drama went to the extent that the former chief law officer of the state fumed with rage that over his dead body would he allow the scanning of the over 450,000 ballot papers the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate allegedly scored.
Officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), party agents and reporters watched in shock and disbelief as Nwoko recreated a replica of the Godsday Orubebe show at the International Conference Centre during the collation and announcement of the Presidential results.
Activities at the conference hall of the electoral commission in Uyo, venue of the inspection, came to a standstill for more than two hours. Security personnel comprising mostly men of the Department of State Security (DSS) and Police pleaded with APC agents to exercise restraint.
The APC has described the action as shameful, shocking, disgusting and unbecoming. Not even pleas by officers and men of the DSS that he should show some level of civility could Nwoko.
The earlier order of the tribunal granted on May 8 declaring a 10-day grace for the inspection of the election materials was unsuccessful owning to acts of interference.
Tempers rose to its peak when party agents took him up warning him against flouting the tribunal’s order. The situation got worse when the Head of Legal Department of INEC as well as the electoral officer of Ikono Local Government Area also echoed Nwoko’s position that the ballot papers would not be scanned until they tribunal’s order was interpreted by the tribunal, a position that further incensed party agents who sensed that both Nwoko and INEC officials were merely playing script to undermine the process. Security agents had to smuggle the EO to safety as the angry agents almost mobbed him for being partisan even as a civil servant.
When it was time for the EO of Ikono to supervise the scanning of the ballot papers of the local government, he was nowhere to be found. When asked for by the party agents, the legal officer said he was receiving treatment in the hospital, a reply which further infuriated the petitioner’s agents. It took the intervention of the State Secretary of the APC to calm down his party agents for normalcy to return to the venue.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Austin Okojie, who was alleged to be in a hospital at an undisclosed location had to call the Legal Department of the commission directing that the tribunals order should be carried out as directed and contained in the tribunals order that was earlier served INEC before any progress could be made. Nwoko was still desperately trying to scuttle the scanning of the ballot papers even with the directive of the REC and non interference order of the tribunal which the PDP he claimed he was representing were also served.
The man Nwoko
Nwoko was one of the popular members of the Akpabio government. Barring any last-minute change of mind, he is set to return to the government. Akpabio has promised to nominate him as a commissioner in the Udom Emmanuel administration. The former governor and Senator-elect, whose election Nwoko was defending on Tuesday, made the promise openly when he was on a campaign tour of the lawyer’s local government early in the year.
Until January, Nwoko was not a politician in the strict sense of the word. He was a lawyer in private practice loved by many for his radical bent and assistance to the underprivileged.
He was sworn in by Akpabio as the 14th Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice of the oil-rich state on Tuesday, January 13. He served the administration for 20 weeks and seems to have proved his worth as fourth occupant of the office under Akpabio.
Nwoko succeeded Ekpenyong Ntekim, who resigned last October to contest for the governorship primary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The other two who had also occupied the position under Akpabio are Chief Victor Iyanam and Chief Assam Assam (SAN).
He is considered the first Attorney General of the state with a robust background in rights activism. Before relocating to Akwa Ibom, Nwoko practised law in Lagos. Many will remember him as the lawyer who dragged retired Air Vice Marshal Nsikak Eduok to court on allegation of the murder of his domestic servant.
The Victor Attah administration saw ‘hell’ in the hands of Nwoko. He disagreed openly with the administration on issues revolving around constitutionalism. Former Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation Michael Aondoakaa cannot forget Nwoko in a hurry over his handling of a pre-election brief arising from the 2007 general elections. Nwoko was the lawyer to Emmanuel Obot, who challenged the election of Basssey up to the Supreme Court where a unanimous judgment was delivered by Justice Dahiru Musdapher returning Obot as duly elected into the House of Representatives.
During the adjudication on the case, Nwoko accused Aonadokaa of violating the tenets of the rule of law by impeding the judgment of the court. This contributed to the stripping of Aondoakaa of the title of the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) by the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC). Another factor that culminated in the move against Aondoakaa was a petition submitted by the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR).
Nwoko has close to 25 years experience in law practice majoring in commercial, property and public law. So, it was not surprising that the human rights community in Akwa Ibom and the House of Assembly were happy when he was made the attorney-general.
The 50-year old Nwoko obtained his LL.B from the University of Calabar in 1991 and his BL in 1992 after a mandatory one year at the Nigerian Law School, Lagos. He had his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme in Lagos. He bagged an LL.M degree at the Lagos State University, Ojo in 1998.
And now
The Nwoko of Tuesday is quite different from the vintage Nwoko who ate, slept and dreamt the rule of law. Anger sure got a better part of him and it will take some time for him to shrug off the new image.
Culled from The Nations newspaper
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