Supreme court's ruling on Imo election should be analysed - Ozekome
Wed Jan 15, 2020 09:21:am National
1.6K By Afam Jude Offor
Mike Ozekhome, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has said that the supreme court judgement declaring Hope Uzodinma winner of the 2019 Imo governorship election, should be analysed to see if there is justice in it,
On Tuesday, Ihedioha who the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared winner of the election was sacked by a seven-man panel of the Supreme Court after Uzodinma, who came fourth, challenged the outcome of the election in court. Reacting in a statement, Ozekhome said the supreme court decision was final but analysts must check whether the judgement was delivered according to the law. He said, “There is ordinarily a presumption by the society that the supreme court, being the final court of the land, is supposed to be right in its decisions, after rigorous and painstaking perusal of cases brought before it between feuding parties." “However, the next stage is for legal pundits, analysts and academicians, to dissect the judgement thoroughly, to decipher if it met the justice of the case, having regard to the available facts. I do not have these facts, not being one of the counsel in the appeal. They must interrogate whether the judgement actually delivered justice according to law. After all, law is but a handmaid instituted by man to deliver justice. The two are Siamese twins. One without the other is bare and vacuous. One area that needs critical analysis and interrogation is what makes a candidate that came 4th in an election to be declared the winner of that election. Another area that requires an urgent answer is why INEC has so failed the nation that presidents and governors are now being packaged and delivered for the country and states, against the clear choice of the electorate at the polls. If INEC got its acts right, the judiciary’s frequent interventions would have been greatly minimized. Today, INEC is neither independent, impartial, nor well equipped to count the electorate’s votes and also allow such votes to count. That is the sorry state we are in today, especially since 2015. May God help Nigeria.”
On Tuesday, Ihedioha who the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared winner of the election was sacked by a seven-man panel of the Supreme Court after Uzodinma, who came fourth, challenged the outcome of the election in court. Reacting in a statement, Ozekhome said the supreme court decision was final but analysts must check whether the judgement was delivered according to the law. He said, “There is ordinarily a presumption by the society that the supreme court, being the final court of the land, is supposed to be right in its decisions, after rigorous and painstaking perusal of cases brought before it between feuding parties." “However, the next stage is for legal pundits, analysts and academicians, to dissect the judgement thoroughly, to decipher if it met the justice of the case, having regard to the available facts. I do not have these facts, not being one of the counsel in the appeal. They must interrogate whether the judgement actually delivered justice according to law. After all, law is but a handmaid instituted by man to deliver justice. The two are Siamese twins. One without the other is bare and vacuous. One area that needs critical analysis and interrogation is what makes a candidate that came 4th in an election to be declared the winner of that election. Another area that requires an urgent answer is why INEC has so failed the nation that presidents and governors are now being packaged and delivered for the country and states, against the clear choice of the electorate at the polls. If INEC got its acts right, the judiciary’s frequent interventions would have been greatly minimized. Today, INEC is neither independent, impartial, nor well equipped to count the electorate’s votes and also allow such votes to count. That is the sorry state we are in today, especially since 2015. May God help Nigeria.”
Related News
Leave a comment...