I had 19 cases instituted against me in seven years – Uduaghan

Governor Em­manuel Udu­aghan of Delta State has said 19 cases presided over by 77 judges were instituted against him by his political opponents since May 29, 2007 when he assumed office for his first tenure.
Uduaghan spoke at a special thanksgiving service to cele­brate his recent victory at the Supreme Court in the suit in­stituted by the gubernatorial candidate of the Democratic Peoples Party, Great Ogboru in the 2011 gover­norship poll.
The Supreme Court had castigated Ogboru’s coun­sel and awarded N8 million fine against him for what the panel of justices described as abuse of court process, and ordered that the N8 million be shared among the respon­dents, including Uduaghan.
In his remarks at the thanksgiving service, which held at the First Baptist Church, Warri, the governor promised to donate his N2 million to the church.
He said the thanksgiving service was to appreciate God who had given him vic­tories in the several cases that were instituted against him by his political opponents since his emergence as the Peoples Democratic Party candidate for the 2007 governorship poll.
He said: “For us, this thanksgiving is very important and critical.
“If you know our political his­tory, since 2007 it has been a long struggle.
“We had 19 cases within the last seven years and a total of 77 judges were involved and I hear that is the highest recorded num­ber of cases in Nigeria today against any politician.
“In all of these, it is not by power of our lawyers or the knowledge of anyone but by the grace of God.
“In this last case, the Supreme Court imposed fine and warned the lawyer never to bring the case to the court again.
“The case was not my case.
“It was God’s case and I have told my lawyers to bring the N2 million fine in favour of me to this church because I dedicated the flag given to me as the PDP can­didate for the election in this church.”
Uduaghan noted that the next one year would be very critical, “but, God has been faithful, God is our King, our Lord and whenever you believe in God, you will have the type of result that I got.”
Bishop of Asaba Diocese of the Anglican Communion, Justus Mogekwu, had said: “In giving praise and thanksgiving, we rec­ognise God’s virtue and in recognising God’s virtue, we encourage Him to do more for us.”