From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
The Partnership for Issues-based Campaign in Nigeria (PICaN) has cautioned the judges handling election petition cases across the country not to use technicalities to pervert the popular and free will of Nigerians.
Addressing a press conference in Kaduna, PICaN’s national president, Bako Abdul Usman, who equally doubles as the national president of the Campaign for Democracy (CD), warned that the recent rulings by the governorship election petition tribunals in Kano and other states were putting Nigeria’s democracy under unnecessary pressure.
He called for an immediate overhaul of the country’s electoral and judicial systems to salvage the situation before things get out of hand.
“Our democracy in Nigeria is under serious threat. Some of the recent tribunal judgments across the country have exposed this disturbing reality.
“Nothing short of a total overhaul of our electoral and judicial systems is required to salvage it. We need to bring to an end the era of using technicalities by the judiciary to subvert the popular and free will of the people,” he said.
To salvage the electoral process, the group called for full adoption of Justice Muhammad Uwais Electoral Reform Committee report which if implemented would improve the entire electoral system with emphasis on strengthening the legal frameworks and enhancing the independence of the electoral body.
Usman specifically stressed the need to close the gaps by amending Section 64(4),(5) of the Electoral Act 2022 on the transmission of the data of accreditation recorded, votes, and results of the election recorded.