- Lawyers call for urgent review of nation’s electoral laws and the electoral jurisprudence
The running mate to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential candidate in the 2019 polls, Mr Peter Obi, on Wednesday reacted to the Supreme Court judgment that dismissed the appeal they filed before the court.
Nigeria’s Chief Justice Tanko Muhammad, leading a seven-member panel of the nation’s apex court had unanimously sat and decided on the appeal, and said it would give reason for its dismissal on a later date it would announce.
Obi, a former Governor of Anambra State, thanked all Nigerians for following the court process and for voting during the election.
He said that Abubakar and their party the PDP went to court because they believed that “the result was not the result of lawful votes, but the process had come to the end”.
His wordsd: “I thank all those that were involved, the lawyers, the judges, all of you (journalists).
“This election and the judgment is not about President Buhari or his Excellency, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. It is about the future of the country and what we are going to bequeathe our children.”
Abubakar’s lead lawyer, Mr Levy Uzoukwu, said: “No reason has been given and we have done our best, our clients have done their best. The rest is for Nigerians.
“But let me say this that, unless something drastic is done to electoral jurisprudence in this country, there would be a problem because it is now becoming obvious that petitioners would always find it difficult to prosecute their cases.
“But all said, until they (Supreme Court) give their reason, we take it up from there.”
Another lawyer, who represented the petitioners, Mike Ozhekhome, said he thinks “the strategy for the short judgement without reasons is to prevent unnecessary tension gripping the country once more like during elections.”
“At least today, the baby has been delivered, not aborted even if the baby is malfunctioned. It is not the issue but the thing is the baby has been delivered but what manner of baby it is, what ingredients make up the being of the baby, we do not know yet.
“Those are the reasons the apex court said they will tell Nigerians and the world for dismissing this appeal as lacking in merit, we cannot say more than this because we have not heard the reasons,” he added.
Mr Ozhekhome said, “as far as they are concerned, they have done the best they could under the strangulating regime of electoral jurisprudence”.
This according to the lawyer does not only place an undue burden on the petitioners but also “timelines and the period in which such burden must be discharged.”
“With the Supreme Court saying that the timeline provided in the Constitution is like the rock of Gibraltar, that cannot be moved, so you are being beaten, your hands are tied to the back and you are not even allowed to cry.
“As Levy Uzoukwu said, something drastic has to be done about our electoral laws and the electoral jurisprudence, so as to cleanse the stable and make people believe that when they vote, their votes would not only be counted but that such votes must also count.”
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