By Sunday Attah
It is preposterous because the petitioners who claimed to be versed in law appear ignorant of the presumption of innocence under the Nigerian law which holds that an accused is presumed innocent until proven otherwise.
But even without tabling the matter before a competent court, the petitioners want the committee to act and take an action on an ongoing investigation which outcome can go either to disqualify the only hope of the APC at the general elections.
Their prayers are not only contemptible but malicious in that would not only deny Sunny Oche his fundamental human right of participating in an election but also deny the entire people of Ado- Ogbadibo- Okpokwu Federal Constituency the right to exercise their franchise by voting freely for aspirants of their choice.
The whole petition smacks more of political vendetta than the need to seek any redress for an infringements as it it deficient in due process and timed only to achieve only a political goal, which is to stop Sunny Oche from contesting the APC primary.
Otherwise, the proper place to have gone would have been the court of law and not to the screening committee of the party.
This is not surprising as Sunny Oche has shown that he is the aspirant to beat at the APC primary.
The fact that the petitioner lacks the guys to approach a court to seek redress shows that he lacks evidence to pursue the case but only wants to waste the time of the committee with stitches of old wives fables that stand logic on the head.
The APC has been a fair and transparent party which upholds the tenets of democracy and rule of law and has in all instances abided by the basic rules of presumption of innocence while treating cases before it.
The party upheld this principle while treating the case of former governor of Plateau State, Chief Joshua Dariye who had case against him since 2007 but was cleared to contest in 2011 and won.
As further evidence that the party loses nothing once an election is won, even when Dariye was found guilty he was still allowed to complete his tenure.
Recently, former governor of Abia State, Orji uzor Kalu who had a petition against him also came back to reclaim his seat when the court discovered it erred.
These show that petitions are insignificant to affect a party's given mandate.
If the screening committee should act on this frivolous allegation, then it would open the door to chaos and disorder as a result of the torrents of jankara allegations that would come before it.
Since the petitioner is a member of the APC, the matter can be resolved internally as Sunny Oche is so far the most equipped of the aspirants to put a good showing in the general elections.
The case of Mad Lion which they cited is different from that of Sunny Oche as the matter was in court at the time the election held unlike this one that is only at the stage of investigation.
Again, Mad Lion's case emphasises why the APC should field Sunny Oche because PDP used Mad Lion to win the House of Representatives seat when they knew that if they had given the ticket to Any other aspirant, it would have emboldened other parties to contest the election and even win.
So since Sunny Oche has the better structure among all the aspirants, the wise thing to do is not only allow him contest but ask the other aspirants collapse their structure into his own.
Attah wrote in from Benue
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