Urohi Village: A Nostalgia of Global Citizen. - In Remembrance of my Late Father, Chief (Hon) A. A. Udebhulu (1912 -- April 21, 1979)

Prince Kelly visit village

By  Prince Kelly O. Udebhulu.

“Urohi is a Global village, in Esan West Local Government Area of Edo State. Perhaps tiny in the world map, but because it is in me, it has become a global village.
Urohi is a spirit place where I merge with nature, and I feel so completely whole and perfectly contented, It is just not a place but the heart of my relationships with myself and humanity.”  -Kelly O. Udebhulu (21/04/2017).

Though I presently live thousands of kilometers away and visit it seldomly, Urohi is still in control of my inner person and the best place on earth, I cherish very gratifying memories. It endears to me as a place where I started the journey of my life and has the roots of my upbringing under the tender and loving care of my people.

Our house was not an epitome of architecture but was definitely an embodiment of placid people embellished with warmth of love and affection. It is a house ( bungalow ) with an open parlor, seven bedrooms and the back door of the house was connected to the major compound architecturally fenced in a C-like pattern with attached leading five different doors which housed two bedrooms each that were occupied by my father's living five wives as the sixth was dead before I was born. Don't ask me why many wives?

It is not unconnected to the fact that my father was one of the first pioneered registrars at Ubiaja magistrate court and a political councilor under Action Group party during the NCNC and Action Group era in Nigeria.

This inward compound is the adobe of my brothers and sisters joined by our cousins where we would sit for hours together exploring the innumerable stars in the sky, and sharing and caring for each other relishing the delicious dishes made and served by one of my father's wives whose turn was at that evening- the superwoman of that particular evening.

Those immensely treasured moments are cherubic and perpetual in my memory.

I have a special relationship with my father being a clever child as he fondly called me, though I was very young, I can still recall it vividly as he sat in his old fashioned wooden chair whose arms are exceptionally polished to give that mirror surface look.

My father would sit in that chair with all of us around facing him while telling the stories of his times reminiscing the feelings of harmony and renewal. Ooh! Before I forget, I remembered the yellowish color "quinine" (liquid) medicine he would gave us in all illnesses that cured us miraculously as in today's miracle Pentecostal churches.

late Chief  A. A. Udebhulu

It is a beautiful village with picturesque landscapes, incredible variety of rare and native species of flora, peaceful and pristine environs of the echoing hills. The bright moon and glinting stars are visible against the pale sky, casting Urohi village into a luminous play ground at night.

How can I not mention the hospitality and amicability of the wonderful and diligent people in my village who welcome me with the same affection even today when I visit them?

Urohi taught me some of the most profound lessons in human relationship that today shape my world-view about life. This in fact has enriched the quality of life I live today in the so-called city.

My true identify come from my village where I belong. It is a feeling of paradise lost when I am not there, but my family, including my cousins, are in the village and even today I feel the same warmth a real home bestows and I constantly bombard myself with the childhood memories from the village and relinquish myself to the real contentment and gratification I esteemed and still esteem at this marvelous village.

Sometimes, we are comforted by the thought that a place is ours that we belong to it, even come from it, and therefore are tied to it in some fundamental way. Such places reaffirm our sense of self, reflecting back to us non-threatening picture of a ground identity.

And this is what my village is to me where am perfectly content because here I can revisit my upbringing values which have in fact positively affected my life, and this village is extremely meaningful to me as I am free to be my true self without having to pretend to be a person who I am not as in an otherwise pompous and conceited city now.

...to be continued.

SUMMARY OF THE JUDGEMENT BY JUSTICE BADAMASI LED PANEL OF EDO ELECTION PETITION TRIBUNAL THAT AFFIRMED THE MANDATE OF GOV. GODWIN OBASEKI

Justice Badamasi noted that the petitioners strayed from their petition when they abandoned the issue of corrupt practices for non compliance with the Electoral Act, saying “they went on the journey without evidence”.

According to Justice Badamasi: “The petitioners wanted to be clever by half when they chose to confine themselves to non compliance and in a nutshell they have abandoned their pleadings in respect of corrupt practices and we so hold.

This means that the petitioners did not prove their allegation of corrupt practices beyond reasonable doubt.

What is begging for an answer is that what is the implication to the petitioner’s failure to specifically claim a relief for nullification of the election based on corrupt practices and what is the effect of abandoning their pleadings on the allegation of corrupt practices?

“While it is true that the petitioners have claimed in their alternative plea the nullification of the election for substantial non compliance with the provision of the Electoral Act where non compliance affected the result of the election, this does not take the place of allegation of corrupt practices which the petitioners made a ground in the petition as the two reliefs are materially different.

In the case of Ozoku VS Izoni it said because of the major role reliefs play in judicial process, Counsel must take all the time he has in the world to draft it very carefully, he must not be in a hurry, he has to go over available evidence and regulate the reliefs accordingly.

When the relief does not reflect the cause of action in the available evidence, the court of law will throw out the matter. The absence of a separate relief in the nullification of the election based on corrupt practices is in our view very fatal to the case of the petitioner and we so hold.

By abandoning the pleadings on corrupt practices we are left with no means of separating the pleadings of corrupt practices with the other averrments.

“In order words we cannot see the grounds of corrupt practices in the account. Accordingly, these two issues are hereby resolved against the petitioner”.

Asserting that the petitioners failed to prove the allegation of over voting, the tribunal said;

“ In the case of Nduke Loius VS INEC it was held that over voting can only occur when the total number of votes cast exceeds the total number of registered voters in the polling units. One could vividly see that the emphasis is on the registered voters and not accredited voters. For a petitioner to prove the allegation of over voting he must cross the following hurdles:

One, tender the registered voters in the units he is challenging, Two, ,tender the voters register but in this case none of such was done before the court.

“We had earlier in the course of this judgement held that the petitioners conceded that they have abandoned their pleadings on corrupt practices, that may not be the only pleadings the petitioners abandoned.

A careful assessment of the witnesses called by the petitioners to prove their case, will reveal that the petitioners abandoned their case in a lot of the polling units, wards and Local government having not called witnesses in those areas, notwithstanding tendering to the bar documents relating to such polling units.

“The petitioners did not call witnesses in the following units; In Akoko Edo, all polling units in ward 3& 6, Etsako East, all polling units in ward 3,7&9. Ikpoba Okhai all polling units in ward 2,3&14; Oredo all polling units in ward 2,9& 12; Egor, all polling units of ward 6&10; Orhiomwon all polling units in wards 2, 5,7 & 12; Igueben all polling units in ward 2,5& 10; Owan East all polling units of ward 1,2,3,7&11; Esan all polling units of ward 3,5&8;Etsako Central all polling units of ward 2,3,7,9&10; Esan Central no witness was called in the entire local government.

“It is clear that pleadings without evidence is nonsense.

The petitioners are challenging the elections on the basis of non compliance in 2,627 polling units in the state. they led evidence to prove their case from 92 witnesses, and out of that 92 witnesses, 27 are polling units agents, two witnesses subpoenaed witnesses, while the remaining 63 are all ward collation agents.

Earlier in the course of this judgment we alluded to the fact that by the provision of section 126 of the Evidence Act, oral evidence shall in all cases be direct.

“All the collation agents that testified in this case did not give direct evidence of what transpired in polling units, rather they relied on information from their ward collation agents and stated under cross examination that their polling agents are still alive and can be produced.

We wonder why those polling unit agents were not called by the petitioners? The ward collation agents are not super men to be at different polling units and their wards at the same time.
“A ward collation agent can only give evidence of what happened at collation centers and not at polling units where he did not visit. The polling agents are more competent to testify on what happened in their polling units. The 27 or 29 polling agents that testified before this court were discredited during cross examination.

“Most of these witnesses when confronted with the voters register stated figures that contradicted their depositions and because of that most of them were discredited. Their witnesses did not demonstrate the ability of their documents to their case. It is the duty of the petitioners tendering documents to link them to the relevance of their case.

“From the evidence adduced from this issue, the much talked about absence of accreditation or improper accreditation in relation to ticking either to the left or the right by voters have not been specifically pleaded in any of the polling units.

The petitioners merely dumped the electoral documents on us without taking steps to link them to specific areas thereby rendering the documents valueless as we do not ascribe any value to them”.
On the claim that INEC failed to call witnesses in the course of the trial, the tribunal ruled that they were right not to have called witnesses, explaining that the evidence provided by the witnesses during cross examination were that of INEC.

In the case between Omisore VS Aregbesola, the Supreme Court ruled that failure to call any witness by INEC did not affect the case adversely in any way.

“In other words, by the very act of cross examining the witnesses of the petitioners, it is not in dispute that all the evidence extracted during cross examination of the witnesses are evidence of INEC.

From the above Supreme Court authorities INEC cannot be deemed to have abandoned its pleadings merely because it did not call witnesses. The position of the law is that a party can establish his case through the witnesses of the other party by revisiting evidence under cross examination. Evidence got during cross examination is as good as evidence given during evidence-in-chief.

The argument that INEC did not call witnesses does not hold water at all.

“In the petitioners’ attempt to prove their case of B evidence. The petitioners have not in our view led credible evidence to justify the grounds of their relief.

“On the whole we hold that the petitioners have not by credible evidence proved their case and have failed to show that they are entitled to their reliefs.

Accordingly this petition is hereby dismissed. The return of Godwin Obaseki as governor is hereby upheld” he declared.

Edo PDP lawmaker drums up support for Obaseki.

Gov. Obaseki

BENIN—THE member representing Egor/Ikpoba Okhai federal constituency of Edo State, in the House of Representatives, Mr Ehioze Agbonayinma, weekend, urged other members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state to jettison political differences and support Governor Godwin Obaseki.

Agbonayinma, who also is a chieftain of the PDP in the state, congratulated Governor Obaseki on his victory at the state governorship Election Petition Tribunal and charged the people of the state to jettison political interests and support the governor since he has been affirmed by the tribunal as the winner of the September 28, 2016 governorship election in the state.

According to him, “I said it after the election that the result reflected the true picture of the votes of the people of Edo State and that Obaseki won the election. And it happened due to the factional crisis wrecking the PDP and failure of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to recognise the authentic candidate of the PDP, which is Matthew Iduoriyekemwen, because we have always said that Ali Modu Sheriff is the authentic national chairman of the PDP.

“So, we must all join hands to pilot the affairs of our great state. We must all put partisan politics aside. Edo State must rise again.”

I believe that every Edo indigene should put the interest of the people in front. This is the time to work together and support the governor.

I want to thank the Oba of Benin for standing up for the development of the state. This is not about political party, this is about our state.”

BREAKING: Gov Obaseki wins at Edo Tribunal

Godwin Obaseki

Kelly O. Udebhulu reports.

BENIN CITY-The Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Benin has upheld the election of Governor Godwin Obaseki, declaring that the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party  (PDP) and its candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, to be declared winner of the election lacked merit.

The Tribunal stated among other things that the reliance of the petitioners on the ticking of the name of a prospective voter on the left side of the voters’ register to mark complete accreditation was only an administrative guideline for election officials.

more details soon.