My dear Chairman and members of the Abia State Election Petition Tribunal.

I would have preferred to send a confidential letter, since the thrust of my writing is about mediation and intercession, but I have chosen an open type in the full realisation that I am speaking for and representing the voice of a large spectrum of men of good conscience, world over. I come to you, not in person but in the mould of ink and pen and very solemnly, to say the soothing words which I pray could heal the wounds you have had to bear in the hands of the main opposition group, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Abia State.

A broken skull heals faster than a broken reputation. And the Abia APGA, in the last couple of days, have tried frantically to break and inflict a permanent injury on your well-guarded and coveted reputation. They have accused you of so many evils. They have accused you of having accepted filthy lucre in the form of bribe and monetary gratification. They have accused you of having compromised your integrity with gifts of big houses and property in far away Atlanta, USA. They will also accuse you of having taken their wives. But, Like a lamb meant for burnt offering, I come before you to intercede and say the words that, in their reckless pride and pomposity and ruthless desperation, they would never say: sorry, my honourable jurists.

Not many realise that you have been hurt by the barrage of insult you have received from the Abia APGA who threw caution to the wind and opened the kitchen sink, in a wild and unguided vituperation, that is nothing but a well meditated attempt to tarnish your image, assassinate your character and drag your coveted integrity to the mud. Because they are not men of noble sentiment and not deserving of honour, they are insensitive to how much men of honour protect, cherish, guard and preserve their long lives of honour. If to covet honour is a crime, I know that men of your distinction, long-standing jurists of caliber, will be the most offensive soul alive.

Imagine that they called that you be jailed and possibly executed for no known offence other than that you allowed the wheel of justice to run its full course in the judgements so far delivered. They have held several press conferences calling for your head. They have been running serial newspaper campaign wherein they have said unprintable things that impinge on your personal credibility and by extension on the credibility of the Nigerian judiciary. They forget that you have families and friends and constituencies to whom you owe explanation for any action of yours. In trying to malign your character, the Abia APGA has openly declared their disrespect for you and the institution of the judiciary. But, I intercede on their behalf and say to you: forgive.

My dear jurists, you have every right to be angry; for character assassination is tantamount to murder. They actually set out to ruin you, to ruin your career and ruin your families. When they called for your imprisonment and execution, they had no singular thought again for your lives. Yet, they could not say where and how you have erred. They could not present facts to show the world how you outrageously diverted judgment with impunity in favour of their perceived enemies. Knowing that they are fully aware of the window of options opened to them in the Appeal Court to seek further redress, in the event that they considered your judgement unfair, one could only see one thing: a calculated, and well-meditated intention to ridicule you and ridicule the hallowed institution of the judiciary and cast aspersion on the credibility of the Abia tribunal.

Not stopping at this, the party attempted to orchestrate an unrest purporting it to be a reaction to the judgment of the tribunal. The aim being to create an atmosphere of pandemonium and thereby portray the state to be in crisis over the rulings that were indisputably fair to all concerned.

My dear jurists, you are human. You have been grievously offended. You have every reason to be angry. Yes, in fact, you should be angry. But, try to ignore the Abia APGA and treat it as one of those distractions you must push aside to drive your work to a meritorious end. There are other angles to the attack meted to you. The entire scenario projects us negatively before the civilised global community.

But, while I intercede and seek for mediation, I would also call on the members of the Nigerian judiciary both the bar and the bench to rise up in condemnation of the attack that has been unleashed on members of the Abia tribunal and the denigration that has come the way of the judiciary. The court is a hollowed entity that should not be treated with disdain or held in such contempt. Somebody must call the party to order and reverse this flagrant descent to indecency. Thereafter, you must join me to heal the wounds of our tribunal members.

My dear tribunal members, I pray that this letter reaches you in good faith. Please, do not make the mistake of stereotyping Abia with the few unguarded men who have sought to destroy you. There is always a Judais. But, woe betide he through whom the son of man shall be betrayed. The people of Abia State are men of good conscience who respect the rule of law and the impartiality of the judiciary and do believe that the judgments so far delivered by the tribunal are fair to all concerned. Abians are grateful for the pains you have taken to settle our grievances.

I bring you greetings of my wife, Ngozi, and my three children.

Yours in the Service of Justice

Godwin Adindu, JP, Umuahia

•Photo shows Godwin Adindu, Chief Press Secretary to the Abia State Governor.

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