Although popular lawyer Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, says the decision of the tribunal that upheld the election of President Bola Tinubu is not surprising, he believes the judges should have admonished the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC.
He is not surprised at the judgement because, according to him, the decisions had been foretold by some earlier pronouncements by the Supreme Court.
But he notes that, based on how INEC failed to instantly electronically transmit the results as it promised, it set back the country’s electoral progress – a situation the judges should not have overlooked.
In an interview with ‘The Punch’, Adegboruwa says: “My concern is the decision of the justices concerning the conduct of the Independent National Electoral Commission. I thought that the judges had an opportunity to help INEC strengthen our democracy. If a body which is given power by law says that it wants to conduct elections electronically and failed to do so and didn’t advance any cogent reason before the court on why it did not do so, I didn’t think it was proper for the justices to endorse or ratify that conduct. By saying that INEC is not bound to transmit elections electronically we have gone back to the days of manipulation.
“We have gone to the days of electoral lawlessness. I thought that the justices would have used that opportunity to at least chastise INEC.
“All the reforms we have campaigned for and gained through the electoral act that was amended before Buhari left have been rubbished by this judgment. Everything we gained in the 2022 electoral act has been reversed. I’m not saying the justices were not right in dismissing the petitions, but to have remained silent about the conduct of INEC and to have endorsed the obvious lapses that INEC committed despite the huge fund, was a disservice to the electoral system. I am hoping that the Supreme Court will take time to correct that. Other than that, I cannot fault the Lordships’ decisions on the petitions.”
