Nigeria’s Supreme Court has provoked the most unsparing criticism so far over its shocking decisions on governorship election disputes, most especially in Rivers and Akwa Ibom states.
Leading election monitors in Nigeria, The Transition Monitoring Group, TMG, in a statement today accused the Supreme Court of “legalising electoral robberies,” with the judgments which validated the victories of Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State in the 2015 general elections.
According to the group, the Supreme Court had by the verdicts refused to give judgments to the people of the two states whose will have been subverted by politicians.
The apex court had last week upturned the decision of the Appeal Court which nullified the election of Governor Wike of Rivers State.
Also, the apex court also reversed the nullification of the electoral victories of Governor Udom by the Court of Appeal yesterday.
The apex court is yet to give reasons for the reversal of the judgments of the appellate court which was based on complaints of massive violence and electoral malpractices during the election.
“As the foremost election observation coalition in the country, we see the Supreme Court judgments as clear cut attempts at legalising electoral robberies. These judgments, particularly on Rivers and Akwa Ibom States, have merely given judicial imprimatur to the damaging mind set of rapacious politicians who would stop at nothing in their bid to subvert the will of the people.
The group, which was involved in the monitoring of elections in the two states said in a statement by its Chairman, Ibrahim Zikirullahi also said it is concerned by “a slew of verdicts and disturbing trend in the judicial pronouncements” on state governorship elections by the Supreme Court.
“For us, it is absolutely shocking that the Supreme Court has decided to act as if it exists in another planet. The TMG is perturbed by the strange legal reasoning that has informed the blank cheque that the court has given to election riggers.
“We make bold to say that while the legal premise behind these judgments is best known to the apex court, the open reward for electoral impunity does not resonate with the Nigerian people.
“As the foremost election observation coalition in the country, we see the Supreme Court judgments as clear cut attempts at legalising electoral robberies. These judgments, particularly on Rivers and Akwa Ibom States, have merely given judicial imprimatur to the damaging mind set of rapacious politicians who would stop at nothing in their bid to subvert the will of the people.
“What these judgments what they have effectively done is to ridicule Nigeria in the eyes of the international community, while diminishing our country’s stature in the comity of lovers of democracy around the world.
“Painfully, the biggest losers are the ordinary people in the states who have been denied their democratic choices on account of the violence and impunity that characterised the polls in those states.
“In the end, what the Supreme Court has succeeded in doing is to spit on the graves of all those innocent Nigerians who lost their lives as a result of the activities of those hell bent on subverting the will of the people,” TMG said.
While noting that beyond the justice of the Supreme Court; there is the justice of the Almighty, TMG said in “due course, those who wilfully killed and maimed in the desperate bid to capture power, would be held to account.” – The News.
