*Says, Level of conflicting judgments is worrisome
Professor Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Wednesday took a swipe at the Judiciary, describing as worrisome, the level of conflicting judgments emanating from various divisions of the Court of Appeal in connection with the 2015 general elections.
Yakubu took a swipe at the Judiciary at an event attended by high-ranking Judges, including the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa during the opening ceremony of a National Conference on Election Petition Tribunals and Appeals organised by the Court of Appeal in Abuja.
Yakubu said there was need for more certainty in the laws governing the resolution of electoral conflicts, noting that some of the reasons given by courts on why some elections were annulled and re-runs ordered, were highly disturbing.
In his words, “There is need for certainty in the rules governing the resolution of electoral disputes. Judicial precedence is of immense importance, without which neither the Judiciary nor INEC will be spared the impunity of political actors”.
Yakubu gave an instance where the appellate court ordered INEC to conduct fresh election, “in which only the duly qualified candidates participated”, only for another division of the court, under similar circumstances, to nullify the election, disqualified the candidate and allowed the political party to submit the name of another candidate for a re-run poll.
“Yet in another division, the Court of Appeal nullified the election, ordered INEC to conduct fresh election, but remained silent about the status of the disqualified candidate, thereby giving room for endless commentary and new rounds of litigation on the eligibility of the disqualified candidate to participate in re-run elections.”
Nevertheless, he said, the electoral body is committed to respect every Judicial pronouncement, until a higher court determined its legal propriety.
Besides, Yakubu disclosed that INEC at the end of the last general election, received 680 petitions filed at different election tribunals across the Federation by various political parties.
He said: “At the end of their sittings, about 580 cases were dismissed by the tribunals and/or Courts of Appeal.”
The INEC boss decried that conducting re-run elections places a heavy financial burden on the commission. For, there were instances where elections were nullified and INEC was ordered to conduct a re-run simply for the sake of conducting elections in just one polling unit.
He said after wastage of time and resources, the outcome of such elections do not make any material difference to the original result that was declared by INEC in substantial compliance with the Electoral Act.
Similarly, Justice Bulkachuwa, President of the Court of Appeal, said the court received a total of 749 appeals that emanated from decisions of the various election petition tribunals.
She stressed that regardless of the exigency of time, the appellate court succeeded in disposing the appeals within the stipulated time-frame.
However, Justice Bulkachuwa kept silent on issues raised against the Judiciary by the INEC chairman.
-Vanguard