Tribunal Judgment: Buhari’s Aide Urges PDP to Approach Supreme Court

The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on National Assembly Matters, Senator Ita Enang, has urged the main opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to seek redress at the Supreme Court if it’s not satisfied with the rulings of the election petition tribunal.

Enang stated this on Thursday when he appeared on the Morning Show, a breakfast programme on Arise Television, a THISDAY Newspaper sister broadcast station.

According to him, “The election tribunal did a great job, as it went into the greatest detail more than any other judgment in the history of election petitions in the country. It addressed every issue that was raised.

“Now is the time for us to set up a body to look at the Electoral Act as it is; and looking at the judgment that has been delivered, I would encourage the PDP to go to the Supreme Court so that whatever issues the Supreme Court will eventually come out with will be the final guide to the legislature and executive as well as the body that I’m suggesting to constitute; fashion out an electoral system that would come to effect two years before the next election.”

Commenting on the electoral petition ruling, the former Dean of the Faculty of Law, Ado Bayero University, Prof. Yusufari Mamman Lawan, said: “It’s a great achievement in the sense that it shows that the democratic process in Nigeria is developing. It also shows that the Nigerian judiciary is up to the task; it can deliver and it’s also making giant strides in the development of legal jurisprudence in Nigeria.

On the lessons to be learned from the ruling by the tribunal, he added: “In election petition, particularly of this nature, there must be lessons to learn and particularly for the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC). There must learn a lesson that whatever they do is liable to challenge. So as they prepare to conduct election, they must have it in mind that people are watching not only the participants in the electoral process, but the country is watching, and whatever they do will be weighed fairly or unfairly; and if the losing party is not satisfied, the courts are waiting to actually look at the complaints lodged by it.

"Secondly, we are learning from the decision that the judiciary is actually coming up. We have a good number of judges who can actually deliver; they have the patience to listen, and they have the energy, wisdom, knowledge and the integrity to actually decide case on merit, and this is exactly what we have seen," he added.