Human rights lawyer and senior advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has said that the Supreme Court should not determine who wins an election.
Falana who made this known while featuring on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday night, maintained that the Independent National Electoral Commission has the sole responsibility of determining the winners of elections in Nigeria and not the judiciary
According to the senior lawyer, the country is yet to maintain a strong footing in the conduct of elections that are devoid of acrimony.
He said, “No doubt, the judgement of the Supreme Court ascended the electoral contestation as far as the presidential election conducted in February this year is concerned, but for sure, it is not a judicial endorsement of the conduct of the election by INEC.
“What I mean is that, even with the judgement, it is very clear that Nigeria has a long way to go in terms of ensuring that credible elections are conducted. Elections that will be devoid of acrimony, elections that all of us will be proud of, but we are still a long way from there even with the judgement.
“Yes, for now, the presidential election is concluded; it should have been concluded in February, but it has just been concluded by the Supreme Court and it should not be so. The judiciary should not determine the winners of elections.”
Falana’s comments came a few days after the Supreme Court affirmed the victory of President Bola Tinubu at the February 25 presidential election.
It would be recalled that the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour Party, Atiku Abubakar and Peter, who rejected the victory of Tinubu at the election, got their petitions thrown out at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal for lack of merits.
However, the apex court also threw out the appeals, seeking to upturn the judgement of the tribunal on Thursday, October 26, 2023, for lacking merit, which corroborated the initial judgement from the tribunal.
