A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, has said the verdict of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), was not totally unexpected, given the stark realities facing us as a nation and the state of the law in particular.
Adegboruwa said that the petitions could have been decided purely on points of law and within a few days of the election, stressing that there can be no real victory in the resolution of the legal issues by the court when the fabric of our democratic engagements seems to have been hijacked and compromised.
This was as he noted that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), fought opponents of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the Tribunal, stressing that it is now very clear that the Commission cannot organise credible polls.
Adegboruwa, who stated these in a statement after the judgement of the Tribunal on Wednesday which threw out the petitions of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi of the Labour Party challenging the declaration of Tinubu as the winner of the February election, said that the principles of presumption of regularity of elections and that of substantial conformity make it extremely difficult to prosecute elections successfully.
The erudite lawyer said that in this particular case, the burden placed upon the petitioners in order to upturn the election was practically insurmountable.
In his words; “To make matters worse, INEC practically fought the petitioners to a standstill, as if it was an interested party in the whole process”.
Adegboruwa therefore canvassed the unbundling of INEC to make it really independent, non-partisan and effective, adding that with the present system in place, anyone declared ‘winner’ will most often coast to victory at the election tribunal.
He further said; “Today’s verdict should be a reason for sober reflection by all, especially for the parties in court, their lawyers and all lovers of democracy.
“Part of the lesson in this process is for us to go back and review the electoral process and the litigation following it. “INEC as it is presently constituted cannot birth any credible election in Nigeria.
“In all, maybe there was too much expectation that the status quo would be upturned, whereas many of the principles of law canvased had long been settled by the apex court.
“While encouraging all parties to continue in towing the paths already defined by law for the ventilation of grievances, we owe Nigeria an urgent duty to dismantle INEC, urgently,” he said.
