Uzoukwu warns, litigants may be forced to abandon hope without justice
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Aggrieved parties may be forced to seek self-help if the courts keep on denying them justice by using legal technicalities to kill off genuine cases, Livy Uzoukwu, SAN has warned.
Uzoukwu, lead counsel for Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate Peter Obi, disclosed his client will appeal the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) which affirmed the election of President Bola Tinubu.
He stressed after the verdict on Wednesday that Obi embraces peace but warned other litigants dissatisfied with election judgments may resort to self-help if they continue to find it very difficult to establish their case.
He insisted obstacles to justice are erected by government institutions, one of them the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which may cause the end of sound electoral jurisprudence.
“If we are not careful, our electoral jurisprudence will eventually disappear. I am saying this with every amount of sincerity because when the litigant, when those who contested the election continue to find it very difficult to establish their case due to obstacles in the way, starting with INEC, certainly they may resort to some other means of trying to get justice, which may not be lawful,” Uzoukwu said.
“Also, I commend the Court of Appeal for introducing live streaming. You may recall that we applied to the court to have live streaming of all the proceedings, but the court, in its wisdom, did not grant the application.”
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Need to guarantee transparency
“But now, in the end, they saw the wisdom in it and the need to guarantee transparency, hence, live streaming of the judgement,” Uzoukwu added, per The PUNCH.
“Certainly, it would have been better if it was live streaming of the entire proceedings so that the public would have the chance to watch and be able to relate properly with the judgement.
“So, I will hope and pray that this time, it will be continuous, starting from the beginning of a case.
“That is the only way that you can guarantee transparency because when something is open, Nigerians will see things for themselves and they will make up their minds, one way or the other.”
Justice Haruna Tsammani, who led the five-person panel to read out the judgment, said: “This petition accordingly lacks merit. I affirm the return of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the duly elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The parties are to bear their cost.”
The other four Justices unanimously took turns to dismiss the petitions presented by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Obi of the Labour Party (LP) challenging the declaration of Tinubu as the winner of the election by the INEC.
The PEPC, in the session that lasted 13 hours, dismissed the consolidated petitions on several grounds, including a lack of merit.