Still on Atiku’s Request for Live Broadcast of Court Proceedings
Alex Enumah
In a situation where there are concerns over the outcome of the 2023 general elections with individuals daily losing confidence in the country and its various institutions, it behoves on the judiciary saddled with the responsibility of deciding who takes over from President Muhammadu Buhari come May 29, 2023, to make that process of decision very transparent for acceptability by all. writes.
The tasks before the five-member panel of Justices of the Court of Appeal, handling the 2023 Presidential Election cases is no doubt herculean but still surmountable, if the justices can abide by one of the greatest and most relevant principles of justice as presented by Lord Hewart, one of the great legal luminary of all times who stated that, “It is not merely of some importance but is of fundamental importance that justice should not only be done but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done”.
The 2023 presidential election is the seventh election in the Fourth Republic and the 10th since Nigeria gained independence in 1960, however, the heat generated or is generating seems to have surpassed previous elections. Its tension could be compared to that of the 1993 election, although won by the late business mogul and philanthropist, Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, which was declared inconclusive.
While in the instant case, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, has been declared president-elect by the electoral umpire, efforts are on to ensure Tinubu is not sworn in come May 29, until some constitutional benchmarks relating to his declaration are met.
Besides the suit filed by some aggrieved voters in the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT), Abuja, before a Federal High Court, Abuja, seeking the suspension of Tinubu’s inauguration on account that he did not score 25% in the FCT as required by the Constitution, there are three pending petitions before the Presidential Election Petition Court (PREPEC) following the withdrawal of two.
Five political parties and their
presidential candidates had initially filed petitions before the court, they include the Action Alliance (AA), Action Peoples Party (APP), Labour Party (LP), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), and People’s Democratic Party (PDP). However, the AA and APP have withdrawn their petitions.
The petitioners mainly hinged their case on the alleged failure of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to comply with its guidelines as well as the deployment of the Bi-modal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machine to upload results real-time on INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal. They had also alleged corrupt practices and non-qualification of Tinubu to participate in the poll as well as faulting INEC for announcing Tinubu winner having not scored 25% in the FCT.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, had boasted with the BVAS and IReV technologies as the game changer that would produce
Nigeria’s most credible, freest, and fairest elections devoid of violence, ballot box snatching, vote buying, and manipulation among others. Unfortunately, the election to some stakeholders has been adjudged the worst so far since this republic. Hence, the current petitions at the PREPEC.
However, as the PREPEC commences sittings, the PDP and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, brought an “innocuous application” as his lawyer, Chief Chris Uche, SAN, puts it before the court.
His simple prayer is for the court to permit live broadcast of the PREPEC proceedings.
The application “is innocuous, it will facilitate the hearing of the case”, Uche said while urging the court to step it down for adoption.
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