|
Adamawa Election Tribunal's Judgement: Triumph Of Justice Against Falsehood By Usman Garba Santuraki Jimeta-Yola
The judgement delivered by the Election Tribunal in regards to the flawed election of April 2007 which nullified the purported election of Admiral Murtala Nyako following the suit filed by the Action Congress candidate Alhaji Ibrahim Bapetel is long awaited.
This is because right from day one, the umpire body charged with the responsibility (INEC) greatly erred by discontinuing the counting of the votes of the AC candidate. Infact, what INEC has done never happened in the history of any election held in this country. The same INEC issued a press statement reinstated the fact three days to the election that, Alhaji Ibrahim Bapetel is one of the candidates going in for the Gubernatorial election in Adamawa State but, suddenly on the eve of the election, the body came out with a statement read to pressmen by the Resident Electoral Commissioner in charge of the state that, the AC candidate was disqualified.
The questions that cross the minds of political pundits and the supporters of the Action Congress are is it not the same INEC that cleared the AC candidate to contest for the election? Why is it that the body did not find it deeming or rather appropriate to informed the candidate by communicating to him officially? What does the electoral act specified on the disqualification of a candidate going in for election? These are pertinent questions that really need answer from the electoral body. What really happened in Adamawa State would never happen anywhere in the world. It is only in Adamawa State that, some people because of their closeness to the then President Obasanjo took the law unto their hands by directing the umpire body charged with the responsibility of conducting election to announced to the world a different result rather than the authentic results cast by the vast majority of the people of Adamawa State by declaring the candidate of the PDP in the state as the winner of the election.
Also, it is only in Adamawa State that, a person simply on the basis of his closeness would ordered for the blotting of the name and picture of a candidate that was in the ballot paper-this happened in the full glue eyes of the people of the state and the foreign observers during the election in one of the Local Government area of the state. The kind of election held in Adamawa State can best be described as charade as all things that would make the election to credible and accepted by all was thrown to the winds by those, who perpetrated this big crime simply because the then President Obasanjo is behind their diabolical acts that is inimical to the survival of an enduring democracy. What the electoral body has done is another big burden on the state of which, it is the people of the state that would bear it. The whole essence of entering for an election is to obtained competition that is durable and accepted by the competitors.
In other words, election if, conducted in a free and fair environment must be accepted by all and sundry and more importantly, the loser had to embrace the winner and extend his or her hands for the good of the state. But, in a given situation as obtained in Adamawa State during the election, where the use of physical and mental might was used in order to rubbish some people because of their rising political profile, one cannot expect such hands of friendship extended to the winner. What INEC has done in Adamawa State in the name of conducting election is a sheer waste of the public funds that if, channelled into some sectors would have bettered the lot of people. The judgement delivered in Adamawa State by quashing and nullifying the purported election of Admiral Nyako and the other judgements delivered by the same tribunals across the land would go a long in instituting credible democratic governance in the future.
Also, it would lead to having free and fair elections in the future. Falsehood never stands the test of time. But, truth last for ever. As such, the judgement delivered by the Adamawa State Election Tribunal is a watershed in the history of judgements delivered by the Nigerian judiciary. It is quite advisable for the electoral body INEC to put its house in order and remained impartial in the conduct of its elections in the future. The Nigerian judiciary is no longer playing to the gallery as it has stamp its feet to see, that justice is obtained not even in the election tribunals but, even in the other various courts so that, the common man can easily get justice. Without getting the necessary justice in the judiciary, the country can easily plunge into a lawless country where anarchy would loomed its ugly head.
The judiciary is rising to protect the country and the entire people of the country as buttress by the recent judgements delivered by the various election tribunals across the country. The Adamawa State Election Tribunal judgement delivered recently had greatly rekindled the hope and aspiration of the up coming younger politicians in the state.
|