The recent decision by the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Enugu State has been condemned by the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA).
According to Anaedoonline.ng, the Tribunal dismissed Chijioke Edeoga of the Labour Party’s (LP) case against Peter Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s (PDP) governorship bid.
HURIWA noted that the verdict has left the country in shock in response to the event.
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They claimed that the court had demonstrated to Nigerians that candidates for political office may falsify their credentials and get away with it.
The group made this statement while their National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, was speaking at a press conference in Abuja.
The group expressed its indignation at the tribunal’s decision, noting that it defies logic and raises important concerns about the credibility of Nigeria’s democratic system.
According to the group, the decision “undermines the principles of fairness and transparency in elections” and is a “gross miscarriage of justice.”
It asserted that “the ruling not only condones potential acts of alleged certificate forgery but also sends a distressing message that political aspirants can manipulate their qualifications with impunity precisely because the Tribunal deliberately failed to address that aspect of the petition but rather played around flowery language to deodorise the panel’s decision to unleash injustice.
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“The three-man tribunal, in a unanimous judgment delivered by its chairman, Justice Kudirat Akano, dismissed the petitions of the Labour Party and its candidate, Chijioke Edeoga, on the basis that the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate is not a qualification to contest a governorship election.
“This reasoning demonstrates a troubling lack of understanding of the law and its application.
“One of the most troubling aspects of the ruling is the acknowledgement by the tribunal that Governor Mbah may or may not have presented a likely forged NYSC certificate because the Tribunal left the question in an unmitigated logical ambiguity when in fact it was expected to definitively make a pronouncement on the validity or invalidity of that allegation of certificate forgery which in any event the Governor has another subsisting matter in another court of coordinate jurisdiction for interpretation.
“The Tribunal which opted to deal with that matter, would have applied the law but rather applied sophistry and ended up not resolving that logical question.
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“Astonishingly, the tribunal conceded that the certificate was presented but argued that because Mbah did not ‘intend’ to use it to aid his qualification, he cannot be disqualified.
“This dubious reasoning essentially tolerates potential forgery and undermines the very essence of electoral transparency and honesty,” Onwubiko added.
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