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…advices Peter Obi, Atiku not to go to Supreme Court
From Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsha
A group known as Voters Rights Association of Nigeria (VRAN) has called for ammendment of 1999 constitution which has a politically motivated lacuna (gap) which need to be filled so as to be in line with the Kenyan Constitution model in which a declared winner of an election especially the presidential election will not be allowed to be sworn in or form a government until the Election Petition against President-elect’s victory was finally determined by the apex court.
The group said that the National Assembly should amend the 1999 Constitution to provide for 12 Months Transition Handover period between the Outgoing President/Governor/Legislator and the Incoming President/Governor/Legislator saying that the 12 months Transition Handover period will be utilized by the electoral body to fix and conduct the elections.
The President of Voters Rights Association of Nigeria (VRAN) Dr.Jezie Ekejiuba while reacting to the judgment in a statement said that all elections appeals must also be determined during the 12 months Transition Handover period as clearance for the elected politicians to be sworn into office, the only way to guarantee the independent and fearless judiciary.
“The judgment of the Justice Haruna Tsammani-led Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) has come and gone. Instead of blaming the panel of judges for the correctness or incorrectness of the judgment delivered yesterday, Wednesday September 6, 2023, all energies shall better be channelled to agitating or campaigning for the amendment the flawed 1999 Constitution of Nigeria.
“Which judge in Nigeria will be fearless to dethrone a powerful sitting president of Nigeria who have fully formed his government? As long as Nigerian National Assembly continues to allow this lacuna in the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as amended to continue to exist, any person hoping that a Nigerian Judge will have the temerity to dethrone a sitting president is only living in fools paradise.
“There is also an urgent need by the National Assembly to amend the Constitution to establish the National Electoral Court of Nigeria (NECON) to also utilise the handover period to determine all the Petitions against the President-elect/Governor-elect/Legislator-elect sitting at Presidential level at Abuja, Governorship level at State Capitals and Legislators Levels at Constituency Headquarters with the final appeal in case of Presidential election at the Supreme Court and in the cases of the Governorship/ Legislative elections at the Court of Appeal.
“The current emergency and politically motivated empanneled judges to preside over election matters in Nigeria is an anathema. Indeed the present situation in Nigeria where a presidential election was held on February 25,2023 and the swearing in of the President-elect was on May 29,2023 which is only 4 months Transition Handover period between the Outgoing President and the Incoming President-elect whose victory is subject of pending petition/litigation is to say the least suspicious and patently unreasonable.
“Our candid advice to Peter Obi and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Labour Party and People’s Democratic Party respectively is this: Rather than appeal to the Supreme Court to procure an academic judgment, the duo should channel their resources through their opposition parties to agitating or campaigning to amend the Constitution to change the present unjust four months Transition Handover period to 12 months Transition Handover period.
“Also boycotting to go to the Supreme Court of Nigeria on appeal against the just delivered judgment on the 2023 Presidential election is another way of protesting against the present unjust Presidential system of allowing the President-elect whose victory is subject matter of a litigation to be sworn relying on the lacuna in the 1999 Constitution” he stated.
