Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has restated that it is wrong to punish Nigerian electorates for the negligence and mistakes of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials during the last general election.
Falana spoke on Channels Television’s programme on Sunday while reacting to the judgements of the appellate court sacking Governor Abba Yusuf of Kano State and Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State.
The senior advocate urged the Supreme Court to review the court of appeal decisions on the governorship election petition matters because he believed the decisions did not reflect the true wishes of the people, adding that thousands of votes should not be invalidated by the court because INEC officials failed to stamp ballot sheets.
He added election matters ought to be concluded before the inauguration of any administration.
In the recent week, the appeal court dismissed three governors who had been certified winners in the March 2023 election by INEC. The three governors fired by the appellate court are all members of opposition parties.
The court fired Yusuf of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) and pronounced Nasir Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress (APC) the winner of the election.
In Zamfara, the appellate court fired Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governor Dauda Lawal after declaring the election inconclusive eight months later. The court ordered INEC to hold new elections in three of the state’s local government districts. The main contestants in the race are PDP’s Lawal and APC’s Bello Matawalle.
On Sunday, the appellate court fired Mutfwang of the PDP and directed INEC to provide a Certificate of Return to Nentawe Goshwe of the APC. The court ruled that the party had breached the court’s direction that a legal congress be convened in each of the state’s 17 local government units.
However, the appellate court upheld the election of APC Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu in Lagos State.
In response to the appellate court decisions, Falana stated that INEC failed to exercise due diligence prior to and during the elections.
He stated that anyone who is displeased with the appeal court decisions can appeal to the Supreme Court.
“If you look at what happened in Lagos is different from what happened in Plateau. You are being told in Plateau that there was a judgement of the high court to the effect that primaries have to be conducted. The judgement, as usual, was dishonoured and disobeyed and the election went on,” the senior lawyer said.
He said the political class must learn to comply with the court’s decision.
“It is different from Kano where you are being told that voters can be punished. It is a very dangerous judicial policy to sanction voters for the mistake of electoral officers. We are being told that 165,000 votes are wasted; they are invalid because some electoral officers committed an error by not stamping them. How does that affect the validity of the election?
“I do hope that this time around, the Supreme Court will resolve these needless controversies surrounding the non-stamping of ballot papers by INEC officials who have not been recommended for any sanction.
“This is why these judgements will have to be reviewed,” he added.