The Coalition of Civil Society Organizations on Leadership and Good Governance has condemned the process and verdict of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, stating that it did not uphold justice to the people, it’s process was questionable and illogical.
Petitions on narcotics proceeds forfeiture of $460,000 in the US was upturned from a criminal matter overnight to a civil matter.
A petition on 25 per cent mandatory votes from Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory was trivialized even though such has not been amended to be so in the constitution.
The certificate forgery Petition which CSU university are willing to tender on request was not even mentioned at all.
Non-compliance to the BVAs electoral guidelines was upturned by PEPC as they stated that INEC was not mandated to upload results to the IREV.
Documents that were proofs of malpractices, rigging and irregularities alongside witnesses of the presidential elections were all seen and rated by the PEPC as being ‘’Doctored’’.
Reports from the International Observation Mission, local Observers and the European Union which are major sponsors of elections in Nigeria were disregarded and discarded and trivialized by PEPC.
It is a shame indeed that this is where we have finally found ourselves. As a nation, one of the most expensive political mistakes ever made in history was sighting the header of Tinubu Presidential Legal Team on the CTC copies of its judgement. I call this nothing but the height of legal irresponsibility. Will Nigerians be right to say that the Tinubu legal team provided clerical services to the PEPC, else how and when did the Tinubu presidential legal team creep into a document that way supposed to be the official document of the court of Appeal of Nigeria.
The PEPC must on its honour, if indeed it still has any, explain why the respondents had custody of the judgement earlier in the day while making same document available to the petitioners much later. Nigerians and the world at large are earnestly waiting for answers to these questions as the legal challenge shifts to the Supreme Court.
Nigerians wondered why there was unnecessary delay in availing certified true copies of its judgement to the petitioners after the verdict. Worthy of note at this point is the fact that the 2023 presidential elections, the process and verdict of the PEPC has aroused many questions begging for answers in the minds of the citizenry.
In the course of delivering its judgement, the PEPC had spoken of the petition it was ruling upon in a vexatious and denigrating language as if it was a crime to bring a case of electoral banditry before the court.
Nigerians, the Civil Society Organizations alongside International Observation Missions are faced with validating suspicions that there were external factors involved in the formulation of judgement and this unwholesome act will bring the entire judiciary of Nigeria into disrepute.
The legal challenge of the electoral banditry of February 25th is not about any presidential aspirant alone in particular, but it was indeed our last opportunity to salvage our country and deepen democracy.
If the judiciary which is the last hope of the common man cannot defend the people, we may as well begin to ask, which way Nigeria and its democracy, has justice compromised? Things have indeed fallen apart and the centre can no longer hold.
Amb. Oziri A
President, Coalition of Civil Society Organizations on Leadership and Good Governance
As Nigerians we should just play our role and pray, then handle everything and rely on God with total trust and submission. God would surely intervene.