Editorial


Hon Aaron Uzodike 

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Abia State, last week issued a public statement on the matter of Hon. Aaron Uzodike, a member of the party, who has been refused the honour of being sworn in to the State House of Assembly since last year.


“Abia PDP is convinced that there are no legal obstacles preventing his inauguration, following the issuance of his Certificate of Return by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on December 13, 2023, which is the only requirement for his inauguration.


We urge Abia elders, concerned citizens of Abia State, and conscientious members of the Labour Party, especially those dissatisfied with their leader’s autocratic tendencies, to intervene and ensure the immediate inauguration of Hon. Aaron Uzodike to avoid the bastardization of our democracy and prevent the constituents from resorting to self help” the statement added.


Before the recent PDP statement, Uzodike, a former member of the Abia State House of Assembly had appealed to President Bola Tinubu and the State Governor, Alex Otti, to intervene in his delayed inauguration, to no avail.


Uzodike maintains he was re-elected in the March 18, 2023, State House of Assembly election for Aba North.


“On the 27th of November, 2023, the Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos sacked the Labour Party candidate, Destiny Nwagwu, as the elected candidate for Aba North State Constituency and declared me the authentic winner.


“The independent National electoral Commission (INEC) issued me with my Certificate of Return on the 13th of December, 2023, as ordered by the Court, which I submitted to the State House of Assembly for inauguration.


“The Speaker told me that I would not be inaugurated, and when I asked him why, he said, ‘I have an order from above.


“As at today, there is nothing pending anywhere in any court in this Abia, in this country, Nigeria, even in West Africa, even in Africa as a whole, even on the whole world stopping Mr. Speaker from inaugurating me.


“I am calling on the governor as the father of the State, as one who plead the rule of law, to allow the rule of law to take place. The Speaker should do the needful. I am pleading with the President to prevail on them to do that” Uzodike appealed.


But Uzodike doesn’t need to grovel and plead to be inaugurated into the State House of Assembly. His inauguration should be as a matter of course, seeing that all litigations known to law has been concluded and dispensed with.


There are two predominant views on his continued non-inauguration.


The first is that the Governor to whom he has pleaded to, is the person who has given the order to halt his inauguration.


The second is the allegation that he has been asked to decamp or at least make a promise to decamp to the Labour Party before he would be inaugurated. Uzodike has however denied this.


We agree with the Abia State PDP that occurrences like the case of Uzodike, not only bastardizes our democracy but puts us to utter ridicule in the comity of nations.


What else does a duly elected member of a state House of Assembly need do to be inaugurated?


We submit that apart from intervening expeditiously in the matter of Uzodike, the National Assembly need to investigate the legal or procedural lacuna that would make and allow such perfidy on the rule of law to occur in the first place.


It is either we are practicing a democracy that recognizes electoral and judicial processes or we are operating a democracy that recognizes the rule of might, office and power.


The matter of Uzodike need not happen in the first place. It is an aberration and a precedent that does our democracy no good. We implore the National Assembly to step in for the preservation of our hard won democracy.




Credit: Published as the editorial of The Plenary, an online newspaper focusing on the legislature