When the political history of Enugu State would be written in future, there is no doubt that Chief Barrister Okey Ezea will occupy a strategic and enviable position in the book. Having contested for the position of the governor in the state for three consecutive times and lost in all is worthy of mention.
In 2015, shortly after the election that threw up Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi as the governor, Ezea as usual moved the contest to the floor of the Enugu State Governorship Election Tribunal to challenge the declaration of Ugwuanyi as the winner of the election.
Aggrieved by the pronouncement of Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Chief Ezea filed a petition on May 1st, 2015 challenging the result of the election and declaration on the following grounds: That the election in all the wards of the 17 local government areas of the state in the gubernatorial election is invalid by reason of corrupt practices stressing that there was non compliance with the provisions of the electoral Act and was not conducted substantially in accordance with the principle of the electoral Act and which non compliance affected the result of the election.
He further stated that Ugwuanyi was not duly elected by the majority of lawful votes cast on the election ostensibly because, Ugwuanyi and his Party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) committed by themselves and their agents and privies, gross electoral malpractices, electoral offences and offences prohibited by the Electoral Act and are therefore disqualified from the said election.
Ezea among all the reliefs prayed the Tribunal to make an order declaring him the validly elected and returning him as the winner of the Gubernatorial Election, he having scored the highest number of lawful votes of the total valid votes cast in the said election after removing the invalid votes allegedly scored or allocated to Ugwuanyi and his Party in all the 17 local government areas of Enugu State. In the alternative to the above, Ezea prayed the court to make an order nullifying the election conducted in all the 17 local government areas of the state in the guber election into the office of the governor held on April 11, 2015 on grounds of corrupt practices, massive electoral fraud and non compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2010 and order a fresh election.
However, when Barr. Okey Ezea testified at the tribunal under cross-examination by P. I. N. Ikwueto the following was recorded:
Ikwueto: Yes! From the results as declared by INEC, the 1st respondent was the winner
Okey Ezea: Yes. My votes was 43,839 votes. The 1st respondent had 482, 277 votes. On the election day, I was at my polling unit at Itchi Uwani, I voted there. There was election at the unit. At all times, and I have never been to PDP and I am not a member of PDP. It is not my case that I won election. (huge murmuring in the Court room)
Ikwueto: That’s all for this witness my Lords!
By this answer, it is assumed that Barr. Ezea had dealt a fatal blow to his matter because by the ordinary meaning of that statement, he had admitted that he lost the election.
A Fight with Barr. George Ogara
However, no sooner did the matter begin than Ezea began a fresh round of battle with his own lawyer, Barr. George Tab Ogara.
The cause of the fight was not unconnected with disagreements over who should represent Ezea in the matter.
The fight ensued when one of Ezea's lawyers, Ogara, allegedly refused to surrender the documents and exhibits relating to the petition, in his possession. When Mr. Ogara refused to surrender the document and insisted on going ahead with the petition, he was arrested by a team of policemen who towed his car containing the documents packed in three Ghana-Must-Go bags to an unknown destination.
From the first day the petition came up in court, on May 16, 2015, the Petitioners were represented by George Ogara and Peter Ugwu and they continued to appear for the petitioners on subsequent dates.
But on June 15, 2015, when the petition was called, Ogara announced appearance for the petitioners and a Chief A. O. Giwa also announced appearance for the petitioners. This forced the tribunal to ask who, between the two, was the actual Counsel for the petitioners.
It was however suggested that George Ogara should be allowed to lead him (Giwa) since A.O. Giwa's name also appeared on the list of Counsels to the petitioners.
At this stage, Giwa withdrew his appearance for the petitioners and excused himself from the proceedings. Ogara continued to appear for the petitioners on subsequent adjournments.
At the resumed hearing on Thursday July 2, when the petition was called, the petitioner, Chief Ezea was present in court and his party, APC was also represented. George Ogara appeared for the petitioners, Patrick Ikwueto, SAN with Tochuckwu Odo and Cyril Obika, appeared for the Governor, Mrs. A. J. Offia, SAN, PMB Onyia and Uche Onyekachi appeared for the PDP and Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, with Peter Eze, Onyinye Anumonye and E.S. Nri-Ezedi appeared for INEC.
The court gave its report on pre-hearing and scheduling for the hearing of the petition. After that, B. N. Nebe, who was among the lawyers that prepared the petition stood up and announced himself as the Legal Adviser to the APC and went ahead to inform the court that the petitioners had filed a notice of change of counsel and that the petitioners now wish to be represented by Solomon Akuma, SAN. He also applied for adjournment for five days to allow Akuma study the processes filed in the suit.
Ikwueto, SAN, PMB Onyia and Ikpeazu SAN, all opposed the application. They challenged the application on the ground that Nebe, who signed the notice of change of counsel was one of the lawyers whose names appeared on the petition as counsel already representing the petitioners.
The defence lawyers also argued that the name of George Ogara who had been appearing all along for the petitioners was not even contained in the petition as one of the counsels representing the petitioners, adding that all he had been doing all the while was holding brief for those whose names appeared on the petition including Nebe.
The defence lawyers further told the tribunal that the application for change of counsel was aimed at wasting time which the Electoral Act does not allow since under the Act, election petitions are to be given expeditious hearing.
The defence lawyers further submitted that under the Electoral Act and Federal High Court rules, which also applies to Election Tribunals, notice of change of counsel must be accompanied by an affidavit disclosing the reasons for the change but in this case, there was no affidavit filed and no reason given.
They therefore urged the court to discountenance the notice and go ahead with hearing of the case.
In response, George Ogara, said that Mr. Nebe did not obtain his consent before filing the notice of change of counsel and that it was not the practice for a junior counsel to debrief a senior counsel in the same matter. He insisted that he was ready to go on with the petition.
In its ruling, the tribunal held that the application did not comply with the Electoral Act and High Court rules and struck it out. The tribunal adjourned to Monday July 6, 2015 to enable the petitioners sort out the issue of their representation.
But immediately the parties left the court room, counsel to the petitioners, George Ogara, the petitioner and members of APC were seen arguing fiercely at the booth of Ogara's car expressing anger over the confusion created at the tribunal's sitting earlier.
Shortly after, the APC members were seen dragging the Ghana-must-go bags with which George Ogara brought the documents relating to the case. Ogara forcefully took the bags into his car and locked it before moving back into the court room apparently to prevent the APC members from snatching them, but the atmosphere was charged as the petitioner and the APC members were bent on recovering the documents.
Because one of the lawyers was hitting his car outside, George Ogara came out of the court to challenge the APC members and a fight then ensued between them and policemen invited by Ezea arrested the lawyer and took him away for refusing to surrender the document.
Lawyers that appeared before the tribunal who watched the unfortunate development condemned the invasion of the court premises by thugs allegedly invited by the APC.
When The starlite spoke to Barr. Ogara on the issue, he said he brought out his time and money to see if he could remedy Ezea's matter but rather than appreciate his gesture, he (Ezea) brought a band of thugs to the tribunal premises and attacked him.
He said: “I came into this matter without Okey Ezea paying me a dime. I decided to do the matter because he is my brother. The moment we started the matter, Okey Ezea started making some funny moves. In the motion he filed in the tribunal to change counsel, he said he was changing me because I refused to be led by a Senior Advocate who according to him, had had over 35 years post call. I was expecting him to accuse me of incompetence but he didn't say all those. I am 16 years in the bar and I don't get intimidated by anybody just because he is a Senior Advocate. What we are talking about is law not the number of years you had put in as a practitioner. Thank God he did not accuse me of incompetence.
“Chief Ezea after all I have done for him went a step ahead to also accuse me of negotiating with PDP to trade off his matter for N25 million. This was a grave allegation that if I did not handle well was a calculated attempt to bring my reputation to ridicule. For the first time since I was called to bar some 16 years ago, someone, and indeed my client accused me of negotiating with the other camp to sell his matter. It was strange to me and if I tell you I was not embarrassed, I would be telling a lie. You can see the weight of blunder he committed in the tribunal under cross-examination. This was occasioned by lack of diligent representation. In the cross examination, he accepted that it was not his case that he won the governorship election. The meaning of his answer was that we had no reason approaching the tribunal to either declare him winner or annul the election. With that answer, he made an irreparable damage to the matter”.
Says Barr Aroh is Incompetent
After the sordid outing and public show of shame with Barr Ogara which eventually led to his withdrawal from the matter, Okey Ezea again on Tuesday, August 18, declared his new lawyer, Ikechukwu Aroh, at the election petitions tribunal as incompetent.
Ezea made the declaration following an argument between him and Ikechukwu Aroh of Chukwuma Oguejiofor Chambers, who claimed to be his new counsel, over two written addresses filed on his behalf.
One of the addresses was filed by the petitioner's former counsel on Aug. 8 while the second was filed by Aroh four days later, even when he had not been admitted by the tribunal.
Aro told the tribunal that he was instructed by his principal to adopt the written address of Aug. 12 as the petitioner's address and requested the tribunal to enlarge time for him to adopt the address as it was filed out of time.
The petitioner, however, objected on the ground that the tribunal should adopt the address of Aug. 8, saying that Aroh was out to ruin his case.
Aroh subsequently applied for withdrawal of appearance for the petitioner which the tribunal granted.
Ezea Moves to Represent Himself
As Aroh withdrew from the matter, Ezea strangely wanted to make his case in the tribunal. His attempt to carry on with the petition himself, was opposed by the respondents on the ground that he was not listed as such in the petition.
The counsel to the respondent, Patrick Ikwueto, had said that Ezea filed two different written addresses with different dates, adding that the two addresses were filed out of time and urged the petitioner to adopt one as his written address.
In deed, Ezea spent more energy fighting with his own lawyers than he did against his opponents in the tribunal.
But beyond all these, it is alleged that Chief Okey Ezea was legendary in picking quarrel with his lawyers. He was said to have bickered with Barr. Venatius Odo, his lawyer in an election tribunal, Barr. Ben Ezeugwu, his lawyer in an election tribunal, Chief. Mike Ajogwu (SAN), his Lawyer in Election tribunal, Alex Iziyon (SAN) and Olisa Agbakoba (SAN).
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