By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
A Development/Human rights lawyer, Eze Onyekpere has argued that the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT Justices based their judgements on cases brought to them by Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP), Abubakar Atiku of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Princess ChiChi Ojei of Allied Peoples Movement (APM) against the election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), on technicalities and not in accordance with the law.
Speaking on CHANNELS TELEVISION breakfast programme Sunrise Daily monitored by PROMPT NEWS in Abuja on Thursday on the judgment delivered on Wednesday by the learned justices of the Court of Appeal sitting as Election Tribunal, said it is unfortunate that justice was not done on the case brought before the court by the petitioners.
Said he: “I do not agree with the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Court. It seems to me that the justices based their judgements on technicalities and not on law. I was shocked to hear that they are blaming the petitioners for not proving their cases.
“How can they prove their cases when it took the same court to mandate the electoral body Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to grant the political parties the access to obtain the election materials they required to prove their cases yet INEC became a party to matter and refused to comply or complied partially”.
Onyekpere, Lead Director, Center for Social Justice who was reviewing the 2023 PEPC Court’s Decisions criticized
the mantra “Prove Beyond Reasonable Doubts” demand of the judiciary, insisting that someone who stood an election and who has no custody of electoral materials, the law enforcement agencies who have all the evidence but refused to grant access to the petitioners to prove their cases.
The legal practitioner with specialization in development law including Constitutional Reform, Human rights and Fiscal Governance said that except the Nigeria judiciary runs away from basing the decisions on technicalities rather than the law and doing justice to all, the society will continue to be in perils.
Onyekpere however called for the implementation of Justice Mohammed Lawal Uwais’ Electoral Reform Commission Report which he said is gathering dust in the federal government cupboard, pointing out that the current Nigeria cannot afford to be conducting elections are highly disputed.
He also posited that legalism should take cognizance of what the public feel about the outcome of the judicial pronouncements, insisting that there is need to rejig the legal framework for the proper interpretation of the evidence law. READ ALSO:
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Onyekpere argued that rigging of election is a coup d’etat against the citizens of the country and should be treated so, adding that what happened in the last general election where citizens were killed, maimed, ballot boxes snatched and several electoral infractions committed but nobody is held to account leaves a sour taste in the mouths.
The Human right lawyer hower said he is not anticipating a different outcome at the Supreme Court if the case gets there, although he believes that you cannot predict the Courts.
Meanwhile, Adebayo Ojo, SAN, who is in the legal team of President Tinubu has commended the tribunal ruling, saying that the PEPC Justices based their judgements on the facts before them, saying that the petitioners (LP, PDP and APM) and their presidential candidates failed to prove their cases beyond reasonable doubts.
