Itse Sagay, chairman of the
Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), says the supreme
court ought to have addressed the validity of the Osun state governorship rerun
election.
Speaking with Daily Trust, Sagay
said the apex court was right to have nullified the verdict of the tribunal but
should have made an affirmative pronouncement if INEC was right to have
declared the poll inconclusive and subsequently held supplementary poll.
The Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared the September 2018 gubernatorial
election as inconclusive and scheduled a rerun after which Gboyega Oyetola of
the All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared winner.
But Ademola Adeleke, candidate of
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), challenged the outcome of the the election
at the tribunal.
The apex court had set aside the
entire proceedings of the tribunal, placing technicality over the merit of the
case.
He argued that citizens should
not be disenfranchised because of violence or other electoral misgivings.
“The lesson should be drawn home
to everybody that all members of the tribunal or the court should be present
before they can take part in a judgment,” he said.
“When a judge has conducted a
case 90 percent, the judge that takes his place is not allowed to use the
records, he has to start all over again. That is the point the Supreme Court is
making here, and I think I support the decision.
“If there was violence or
something was wrong and you are unable to vote, I don’t know why it is
something wrong in being allowed, on another day, to vote… I think the Supreme
Court should have just completed that so that the issue would not arise again.
“Ballot boxes have been carried
away. Even if you voted, your result cannot count and then INEC decides
according to its guidelines to repeat election in such a place, what is wrong
with that?
“I think the Supreme Court should
have pronounced on that so that you don’t have a situation where somebody would
pre-judge the outcome of election by creating confusion in some areas where he
is weak and then insisting that those people there should not have an
opportunity to vote and then he wins by only allowing election in areas where
he is strong; that is the whole idea of supplementary election so that
everybody can have an opportunity. I think the Supreme Court should have made a
pronouncement on that; whether it is right or wrong.”
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