Date Published: 11/18/09

17 th November 2009.

Press Release.

LAGOS AC DECRIES UNENDING ELECTORAL DISPUTATIONS.

The Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress has expressed worry at the continued prolongation of electoral dispute cases and said such prolongation bodes ill for the wobbly democracy in Nigeria at present. Lagos AC says it is expressing this concerning because nearly three years after the last shambolic election, several cases arising from the scandalous exercise are still unresolved. The party therefore called for an urgent and radical effort to ensure that electoral cases are treated with speed so as to dissuade a situation where a usurper will wield a mandate that was never given to him.

In a release in Lagos, signed by the Lagos State Publicity Secretary of the AC, Joe Igbokwe, the party says that it is saddened that despite the attempt by the Nigerian judiciary to fast-track the process of electoral litigation arising from the 2007 general election, that unresolved disputes are still pending in various tribunals all over the country. It says that such is a sure sign of the sickness of the democracy we are practicing at present.

“While we note the massive scale of the electoral fraud that the PDP and its teleguided INEC invested in that shambolic process that turned out Nigeria’s worst election ever, we still do not understand why most of the cases will linger forever at the tribunals while people with questionable mandate continue presiding over the affairs of states while their so-called mandates remain subjects of endless litigations. We believe that the effort to avoid this pit was responsible for the decision to front load evidences by complainants before the various tribunals.

“We however note with sadness that while that decision went to aid some electoral offenders and riggers who cashed in on the cumbersomeness of frontloading to get cases against them dismissed for timeliness, it had not improved the delay in resolving electoral disputes. In several states like Osun, Ekiti, Ogun, Delta, Imo, etc. the governorship mandate is still hotly in contention while several national and state assembly seats are still pending at the tribunals. What more, there is still pending disputations for the presidential mandate of President Musa Yar’Adua at the tribunal. This is a sad commentary on a horribly mismanaged democracy and a very corrupt electoral process and we believe this is not healthy for the Nigerian nation.

“We note that in a state like Osun, the efforts to frustrate the wheels of justice and prolong the reign of impostors has accounted for why the case is still pending while the police is being employed to persecute and harass the main contender to the stool under various guises. In that way, those that stole the mandate of the people are turning around to use the police to further frustrate the process while digging in. We believe this was never the intention of the nation’s judiciary in trying to fast-pace the process of electoral adjudication. What is even more annoying is that these impostors freely use state funds to fund their fanciful judicial gimmicks and employ same to adopt various extra-legal methods of frustrating their opponents from obtaining justice, as we now see in Osun and Ekiti.

“The reality of unending electoral litigation, secured through a deliberate effort to ensures that electoral rouges and riggers are rewarded with mandates that never were given to them calls for an urgent and radical solution. This is why Lagos AC aligns itself with the recommendations of the Justice Mohammed Uwais Electoral Reform Panel that all electoral disputes must be resolved six months after elections and before a winner is sworn in. We want that to be implemented so that we don’t have the aberration of the present where electoral disputes go on unended and where those who wrongly accessed state power employ state resources to finance annoying diversions that ensure that cases against them are never settled.

“Lagos AC calls on all Nigerians to insist on this demand, among other laudable recommendations of the Uwais Reform Panel, which are now being watered down by those that genuinely feel threatened by a free and fair electoral process in the country.”

Joe Igbokwe.

Publicity Secretary,

Lagos AC.