Date Published: 05/07/10

6 th May 2010.

Press Release.

Lagos AC Condemns Ekiti Tribunal Verdict.

The Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress has described yesterday’s majority ruling upholding the election of Governor Segun Oni of Ekiti State as a perverse way of endorsing electoral fraud. It says that the effort to reform the electoral process will come to nothing if the judicial process is not reformed.

In a release in Lagos, signed by the Lagos State chapter of the AC, Joe Igbokwe, Lagos AC said that for any judicial tribunal or panel to struggle in the way the Ekiti tribunal did to endorse the monumental electoral fraud that took place last year, it means that Nigeria is in real danger. It says that any electoral reform must be backed by judicial reform to ensure that the anticipated  cleanising of the country’s electoral process will not be in vain.

“We were actually surprised that any tribunal should seek for trite and bare reasons to uphold what is evidently a huge slap on electoral decency and free and fair electoral process as happened in Ekiti State in April 2007 and April 2009. We are even more alarmed at the way the majority members of the tribunal shredded incontrovertible evidences of electoral chicanery and fraud that happened before the entire world so as to return the PDP to a stool they stole in 2007. It shows that the judiciary may introduce a real danger to the envisaged electoral cleansing we had been stretching ourselves to crusade for here in Nigeria.

“Lagos AC believes that the Nigerian judiciary’s role in the electoral process of the country is programmed to protect electoral thieves and fraudsters who have come to desecrate the country’s electoral process for their selfish and ulterior motives. We see the entire majority ruling on the Ekiti case as a great travesty of justice and this speaks of the dangers inherent in reforming the electoral process without doing same in the judicial process where justice is being perverted to benefit those that killed, burnt and planted intrigues to covet state power. We see everything wrong in a system that goes extra miles to accommodate electoral fraud as was glaringly witnessed in Ekiti State and we see the majority decision on the Ekiti election dispute as such.

“We are happy however about the firm ruling of the minority members of the tribunal who not only affirmed the true events that happened in Ekiti State in April 2009 but declared that Dr. Kayode Fayemi indeed won the disputed election. We are happy that Dr. Fayemi has resolved to take the matter to the Appeal tribunal and we are certain that eventually, he will reclaim his stolen mandate. We urge the teeming supporters of the AC not to be deterred by this judgment but feel encouraged that it is not yet over and that victory is certain at the end of the day. We are confident that justice would still be done because we have a very good case and incontrovertible evidences to back it up. We assure our teeming members and supporters that justice will be done in the Ekiti case in the long run.”

Joe Igbokwe.

Publicity Secretary,

Lagos AC