Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, has said that contrary to the general impression that the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, nullified the election of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano State, the majority judgement of the Court upheld his appeal and granted all the reliefs sought by the governor.
Speaking last night on Arise News Primetime, Falana said he was surprised when he read a copy of the judgement, to see that the majority judgement set aside the judgement of the lower tribunal and awarded cost in favour of the governor.
‘’You will be surprised if I show you the judgement. To my utter dismay the majority judgement of the Court of Appeal in Kano upheld the Appeal, set aside the judgement of the lower court and awarded cost in favour of the governor that was removed by the lower Tribunal. There are contradictions which the court can no longer explain, but which is likely to be taken up by the Supreme Court.
‘’Contrary to the impression that has been given out there, the majority judgement of the Court of Appeal has confirmed that the judgement of the lower court was wrong, and has set it aside in writing, upheld the Appeal and granted all the reliefs sought by Governor Abba. So, you ask yourself, what’s going on?’’
According to Falana, no serious democracy allows the court to determine the winner of elections, adding that Nigeria must put an end to it.
He also advocated for a mechanism to be put in place to deal with electoral offenders no matter how highly placed.
‘’We must go back to Justice Uwais Electoral Committee recommendations, which were adopted by the 2014 National Conference, adopted by Lemu Committee, adopted by the Ken Nnamani Electoral Reform Committee, so that we can begin to hold elections that will reflect the will of the people.
‘’We must not applaud the court when we are favoured, we must have a common standard whereby the wishes of the people must be respected. You cannot say you want to punish somebody for the errors of INEC electoral officials as it was the case in Kano. That is almost scandalous.
He said Nigeria is the only country in the world that records the highest number of election petitions, warning that unless ‘we put in place an electoral system that will punish those that violate the law with impunity, the wishes of the electorates will be trampled upon.
On why INEC get away with wrong doings, Falana said: ‘’The law requires judges to punish on the basis of evidence led before them those who can be said to have manipulated the electoral system or who subverted the electoral system and make a mockery of the wishes of the people.
‘’In those days, judges recommended sanctions for electoral offenders. These days we are only busy with who won the election and who did not win the election, while those that caused the problem go scot-free’’.
According to the fiery lawyer, the Attorneys General appointed by some of the riggers of the elections quietly withdrew cases by filling nolle prosequi applications in court against those arrested for electoral offences.
He said: ‘’That was why the Uwais Committee recommended that we should have an Independent Electoral Offences Commission to deal with those who breach the provisions of electoral law. But it has been rejected over the years; instead, they are saying INEC shall prosecute electoral offenders.”
‘’But we must unbundle IENC to enable it to concentrate on conducting elections by having an electoral offences commission. Also, political Party Regulation
Wale Igbintade
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