Former National Deputy Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, Chief Olabode George, has said the judiciary ought not to determine election winners.
This is as the elder statesmen expressed concerns over the role the judiciary plays in determining election winners in the country.
According to Bode, the judiciary must stop taking away the right of the people to determine poll winners.
He raised the concern during a press briefing in his office in Ikoyi on Monday following the announcement by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja that it would deliver its judgment on Wednesday.
The tribunal had in a statement on Monday, announced Wednesday as date to deliver judgment on the petitions challenging the declaration of Bola Tinubu as the winner of the 2023 presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Bode argued why the judiciary had been making pronouncements to determine election winners rather than order INEC to to re-conduct the elections to aid the emergence of real winners.
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He said, “Our country has been doing, very little positively and very much negatively. In the last few days, I have been thinking as a former military officer and as a civilian since I have served five presidents.
“Our electoral process is shambolic, nonsensical and makes the country nosediving. It is the manipulation of the system.
“A glitch on the day of the election is unforgivable but the INEC chairman told us they were ready but with what happened, generations to come will never forgive him.
“The most contentious issue in Nigeria today is the judiciary, it is one of the pillars of government. Is it right for the judiciary to tell us who won or lost the election?
“What we understand by democracy is Government of the people by the people and for the people but in our own case it shouldn’t be Government of the judiciary by the judiciary and for the judiciary. Is that democratic?
“It is the will of the people that should prevail. If you discover any wrong, ask them to go back and conduct a fresh election even if it takes a hundred times. The job of the judiciary is not to tell us who lost or who won.”
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