In the last few days, the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari at the Supreme Court in the suit challenging his victory in last February’s presidential election, instituted by the main opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar has continued to dominate public discourse.
Atiku and the PDP had challenged the judgment of the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal which had affirmed the election of President Buhari who was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The tribunal had unanimously ruled that Atiku and PDP failed to prove allegations of irregularities against President Buhari and his party over the February 23 elections.
The five-member panel of the tribunal held that Atiku and PDP failed to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, allegations of corruption and non-compliance with the Electoral Act against Buhari and the APC.
Atiku and PDP had alleged that security agencies and agents of the APC committed acts of violence, vote-buying, manipulation of ballot papers, stuffing of ballot boxes, massive thumb-print of ballot papers, deflation and inflation of votes, among others in states such as Borno, Yobe, Niger, Katsina, Bauchi, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Gombe and Kebbi
However, the panel headed by Chief justice of Nigeria, Tanko Mohammed last Wednesday dismissed the appeal for lack of merit, saying that the reasons for its decision would be made public in due course.
“The panel had read all the documents and exhibits filed in the case for two weeks and found the appeal to be lacking in merit,” Tanko said.
Perhaps, for many Nigerians, what is most surprising is not the outcome of the judgment by the nation’s apex court, but the swiftness at which the judgment was delivered by the seven-man panel.
A former deputy national chairman of PDP, Olabode George, expressed deep shock over the Supreme Court verdict, saying that it was too swift and unprecedented.
“The decision of the Supreme Court is too swift, too fast and unprecedented. I am shell-shocked. It is unbelievable. As a party man I am disappointed with the ruling. But that is the pronouncement of the highest court in the land,” he said.
He, however, called on the leaders and members of his party, PDP to come together to do a thorough soul searching to move the party forward, saying this was not the time to engage in blame game.
“Our party must now come together to do a thorough soul searching. This is not the time to blame anyone. Let us shut our doors and look within and do an honest and sincere appraisal about the way forward,” he added.
Also speaking on the judgment, Timi Frank, political activist and former deputy national publicity Secretary of the APC, described the Supreme Court judgment as a show of shame by the judiciary.
In a statement to the media, Frank warned that the few beneficiaries who were hailing the outcome of the judgment should careful not to fall victim in the near future.
He stressed that Atiku will remain a true hero of democracy in Nigeria despite the ruling.
Frank further described the ruling as not only the worst but a daylight robbery in the history of Nigeria.
According to him, “It is an embarrassment and a total show of shame as other countries would l be laughing at our judiciary. It was a well scripted drama. The evil agenda was perfected before Buhari left the country in pretence.
“It was collaboration between the presidency and the Supreme Court. Most Nigerians were shock at the speed at which the panel dismissed the case because the judgment came as a surprise to them.
“Nigerians will recall that I exposed the handpicked names of the panel members two days before Justice Tanko Mohamned made it public. But surprisingly and shamelessly, the anti-democratic forces, despite the exposure still went ahead with the handpicked list. They have sold their consciences to the devil.
“The current apex court has taken the country far backward in the justice administration and it will take the mercy of God for all the actors in this sham to escape the hottest part of hell.
“This is a judgment that posterity will never forgive all those who sat on it and allowed themselves to be compromised. All those who allowed themselves to be used shall fully receive their reward. It will be on record that certain Justices had opportunity to right the wrong but decided otherwise.”
“It is not all about Atiku, he cannot go hungry. It is about the future of young Nigerians. If Nigerians will continue to seat back and refuse to fight for their rights, the obvious hunger, poverty, insecurity, unemployment, incompetence hands in government and all other problems facing the country will not voluntarily disappear,” Timi Frank warned.
However, this accusation and suspicious was waved aside by a Lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Jhon Bayeishea who spoke in an interview with BDSUNDAY, arguing that considering the limited time available to the Supreme Court Judges on the case, the judges had probably read the brief of Atiku’s lawyers and made their submission from there.
Bayeishea added that there was nothing new in the judgment, stressing that similar judgment had been given in the past.
According to him, “The Supreme Court has their reasons even in critical instances; it is just people that are taking it as if heaven would fall. For lawyers it is just like any other cases.
“The case is time bound; that is 60 days from the day the judgment was delivered by the Supreme Court, for them to give judgment.
“They did not have all the time; I mean for lawyers of both sides to argue their cases; what they probably did was to read the brief of Atiku’s and Buhari’s lawyers and after that they gave their judgment.
“It is because it is a high profile political case that is why we are seeing all this noise. After reading the briefs, they must have deliberated among themselves and arrived at that judgment. It is a case of exigencies of the time.
“Even before the judgment there were talks that the case was being delayed and time was running out if it would not be heard. If the Supreme Court did not hear the case, we would have been saying something else. Let’s wait and see the reasons for the judgment,” he explained.
A former president of the NBA in Lagos State, Martin Igbochi, urged Nigerians to wait till the apex court gives reasons for their judgment before they could draw conclusion.
“They have given their judgment, and there have been talks on both sides of the parties, I mean they are still talking. But I think we should wait until they give their reasons for the judgment, after then we can effectively criticise them or not,” Igbochi said.
But a chieftain of the APC in Lagos State, Lanre Razak, however, applauded the judgment, describing the verdict as a welcome development.
“Nigerian judiciary has once again demonstrated that it is the last hope of common man the judgment is a good development for the country.
“Politicians and political elites should work hard to win election, they should not rely on wrong notion that the judiciary would give them victory, that’s the lesson of what happened today at the Supreme Court,” Rasak said.
Iniobong Iwok
