Tension mounts over delayed Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, PEPEC judgment as the former governor of River State and currently Minister of Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Chief Nyesom Wike allegedly told his supporters in Rivers State recently that the tribunal members are under control
By Miracle Egbo
It was one judgment which though happened in the 2003, yet remains etched on the minds of legal practitioners and judiciary analysts. It was the judgment delivered in the case of former President Mohammadu Buhari challenging the electoral victory of the then President of the country, former President Olusegun Obasanjo. At the wake of the Supreme Court judgment is the mind boggling revelation that the electoral importance of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT was extremely important for any presidential hopeful who wants to presides the affairs of the country. In the controversial suit, the handlers of Buhari had argued that Obasanjo did not win in the FCT therefore should be disqualified as the winner of the 2003 presidential election. The eminent jurists who oversaw the delivery of justice in the Buhari-Obasanjo matter reminded the petitioners that though Obasanjo did not win in Abuja, he was able to score the required 25 per cent to be able to be declared the winner of the election. The Justices reminded Buhari’s lawyers that scoring the constitutional 25 per cent votes cast in the FCT is compulsory for any presidential hopeful before he or she could be declared the winner of any presidential election in Nigeria.
The landmark judgment by these Justices at the apex court; Justices Mohammed Lawal, Idris Kutigi, Denis Edozie, Sam Odemwingie, Aloysius Iyorgyer, Umaru Kalgo and Ignatius Chukwudi affirmed the importance of FCT in the presidential election. The Justices without equivocation told Buhari’s lawyers then that for anybody to be declared the winner of any presidential election in the country such a person must score the constitutional 25 per cent before the electoral body could declare such a person the winner of the election.
Away from the inescapable Abuja mandate, there are other seven knotty issues that are against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the 2023 presidential election. The knotty issues are:
Narcotic Trafficking Connection In US
Information in the public domain is that President Tinubu actually forfeited $460,000 in the United States of America for narcotic and money laundering, allegation one of the All Progressives Congress, APC, witness Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, the Majority Leader at the 10th National Assembly corroborated during cross examination at the tribunal. According to Bamidele, Tinubu actually forfeited such amount of money but it was done many years ago, “therefore is a dead issue” that should not be used to hold the tribunal to ransom. The submission of Bamidele got the goat of crime analysts who averred that crime is a crime not the age and time it was committed.
Undisclosed Dual citizenship
Until the brave investigative journalist, David Hundeyin regaled the bewildered Nigerians that Tinubu is a citizen of Guinea Bissau; many did not know that the incumbent president for now is embroiled in dual citizenship saga which the Nigerian Constitution frowns at. Since that discovery tongues have been wagging as to why INEC and security operatives should allow a candidate with such despicable baggage scale through to the extent of allegedly winning the presidential election. The Nigerian security agents have been mum since the discovery but the Tinubu’s spin doctors have gone to town to aver that the citizenship passport of their boss has expired therefore the court should not look the way of the infraction as it amounts to the waste of the Tribunal’s time. Questions raised by the spin doctors of Tinubu’s stand in this regard, is that does it mean that anybody whose citizenship passports expires, the person seizes to be the citizen of such country?
Forged Chicago State University Certificate
Hundeyin in his investigative journalism voyage stumbled on the fact that the University certificate being paraded by Tinubu has the trappings of fake. For instance, the name and gender of the owner of the certificate that the incumbent president is parading since 1999 is Female. Even the name in the certificate availed the journalist differ from the name of our president. The name in the certificate according to reports is Bola Adekunle Tinubu, and her date of birth is 1954 while Tinubu’s official year of birth is 1952, the discrepancies in age and names is curious.
Meanwhile, the presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubarka has approached a court in the United States of America, USA to compel the Chicago University to make the Tinubu certificate available to the petitioner, a move that is being thwarted by the handlers of the incumbent president.
Forged NYSC Certificate
It is on record that at the time Tinubu claimed to have graduated from the university, there was a scheme called the National Youths Service Corp, NYSC but there was nothing like exemption granted to any Nigerian graduate at the time. Therefore, the question is how he came about the NYSC certificate that he is parading having claimed in one instance that he had been exempted from participating in the scheme. These are some of the posers allegedly raised by Atiku Abubakar’s lawyers
VP Invalid Nomination
It is on record that the process that threw up Tinubu’s running mate in the election is laced with controversies. The process of selecting Kashim Shettima as the running mate of Tinubu ran foul of the 2022 Electoral Act as amended, therefore cannot stand the test of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Before his selection, the APC had named another vice presidential nominee as a placeholder for Shettima, a doctrine that is alien to Nigeria’s constituted electoral process.
Shettima’s Double Nomination
Information at the disposal of this medium revealed that as the time Shettima was selected as the running mate of Tinubu he was still valid nominated senatorial candidate of his party. In a hush to present his name his party, All Progressives Congress, APC ignored the necessary procedure in selecting him as the running mate of Tinubu. A subpoenaed witness from INEC allegedly testified to the tribunal that no letter was transmitted to the electoral umpire notifying it that Shettima had dropped his nomination for Senatorial election.
The 88,000 Polling Units Results Saga
Revealed at the Tribunal sitting is the fact that many of the polling units results uploaded on the INEC IREV portal for public viewing are not readable. Facts from the Tribunal indicates that over 88,000 polling units results uploaded on the portal as prescribed by the Electoral Act 2022 as amended are blurred. Thus, the question arises, from where did INEC compute the presidential election results with which its Mahmood Yakubu declared Tinubu winner of the election?
Beyond the inescapable knotty issues that have tied the hands of President Tinubu lay the tension induced by the unnecessary delay of judgment by the PEPEC. Not a few electorate are comfortable with the delay as narratives are being bandied as the reason for the delay. Some judiciary analysts are quip to say that the watertight case against the victory of Tinubu at the polls might be responsible for the delay. Some conspiracy theory has emerged that agents of Tinubu are busy trying to compromise the Justices to tweak judgment for the ruling APC, a move that has been condemned by the electorate. Social media have been agog with the worries by the electorate that there is no need for the unnecessary delay in passing judgment in the case that may make or mar the cooperate existence of the country.
The tension caused by the delay is very palpable to the extent that Wole Olanipekun, SAN, the lead counsel for Tinubu at the tribunal unnerved majority of the electorate when he said that using the 25 per cent score in Abuja as the yardstick to nullify Tinubu’s election is going to cause chaos and anarchy in the country, an utterance that has been condemned in many quarters. Mr. Peter Gregory Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party said that nothing would happen if the tribunal delivered justice instead of judgment in the matter. Phrank Shuiabu, a communication expert and one of the spokesperson of Atiku Presidential Campaign said that Tinubu is threatening the judiciary by the kind of utterances credited to his lawyers at the tribunal, calling on the electorate to ignore such statement.
In the same vein, Diaspora Action for Democracy, DADA, a civil society organization, CSO, said the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal should not give any verdict that will set the country ablaze.
“The judiciary is the only institution that has all that it takes to save this country from the threat of implosion. All eyes have been on the judiciary because of Nigeria’s respect for the law. It does not mean that the members of the presidential election are in a better position in this case to tell Nigerians the person who won the presidential election.
“Nigerians do not wait for any court to tell them the winner of any election. It is the electorate that should tell the court so because they know more than the court whom they voted to be their president. But since it is the prerogative of the court to ensure that the truth and justice prevail each time they are disputed, to make room for peace and harmony, they have been given enough evidence to prove the real winner of the 2023 presidential election.
“Arising from our discussion with a wide array of Nigerians is the fear that the judiciary needs to be cautious because if their verdicts fails to satisfy the requirements of justice it may detonate the youths’ simmering anger and set the country ablaze”, Great Jonathan, the coordinator of DADA warned.
The hullabaloo of nimble advert material, “All Eyes On The Judiciary”, according to investigation has been in existence before February 23, 2023 two days even before the presidential election. Then, what is the reason behind the hysteria of Dr. Olelakan Fadolapo, the Director General of Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria, a creation of the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria Act, ARCON 2022, calling for the pulling down of the billboard in Abuja and other parts of the country bearing the inscription of all eyes on the judiciary. A body of advertising experts said that its validity is in doubt because of the fact that advertising is a residual matter under the constitution of which the states have exclusive legislative competence.
Despite pulling down the billboard with the inscription all eyes on the judiciary, social media has been agog has with the inscription, making creative Nigerians to begin to massive production of T-shirts bearing the inscription: all eyes on the judiciary. Writing on Vanguard of August 22, 2023, Sola Ebiseni, National Secretary of Afenifere and the South West Coordinator of OBIDATTI Presidential Campaign said that the government that be is just trying to create confusion with harmless advert that has been in existence even before the conduct of the 2023 presidential election.
“It is doubtful if the DG ARCON and those he claims to represent are fully aware of the responsibility of government and all its organs to society. The storm of hype on which the innocuous message on the billboard is now enjoying free-ride by the amateur reaction makes the citizens curious”, Ebiseni reasoned.
In another development, the new Minister of FCT and former governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike was alleged to have told his supporters in Rivers that the members of the tribunal are under control and the government would do everything within their power to make sure that judgment is in its favour. He told them not to panic because everything is under control.
