Peter Obi: Our Democracy As Victim Of Miscarriage Of Justice

 Remarks at a Press Conference by Mr. Peter Gregory Obi, CON, Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party on The Supreme Court Judgment of 26th October, 2023  On the 2023 Nigeria Presidential Election Held in Abuja, FCT, on Monday 6th November, 2023

*Peter Obi 

  1.Fellow countrymen and women. Gentlemen of the Media, Good day and welcome to this press conference. Kindly permit me to make some brief remarks on the recent ruling of the Supreme Court, the highest court in Nigeria.

2. About a fortnight ago, I was traveling abroad on a prior scheduled engagement when I received the notice that the Supreme Court would give judgment on Thursday 26th October 2023 on our challenge of the ruling   of   the   Presidential   Election   Petitions   Court   (PEPC).   That judgment has since been delivered as scheduled. The leadership of the Labour Party has already pronounced its position on the judgment.

Election Petitions: Nigeria’s Judiciary Must Redeem Itself

 By Olu Fasan

In Nigeria, elections almost always end up in court. To stem this tide, the Electoral Act of 2022 introduced the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, a technology that would drastically reduce electoral malpractices. If that happened, election results would be more credible and less prone to legal challenge, although election matters remain justiciable, that is, subject to trial in a court of law.

Indeed, BVAS reduced the number of petitions arising from this year’s general elections, compared to the six previous elections since 1999. However, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, wilfully refused to use BVAS in the presidential election and in some governorship elections. Consequently, several results announced by INEC raised issues of process values and substantive justice that are now subject to trial in the election tribunals and the courts, ending up, inevitably, in the Supreme Court.