My worry about the judgement is that it does not lead us anywhere near our hope of a new Nigeria and contradicts instructions given by the Court of Appeal itself to Tribunal to pay attention to facts and not technicalities. What the Appeal court did was to follow the well trodden path of the law that any allegations against the state and its agencies must be proven beyond reasonable doubt and also that any document emanating from the state and its agencies are regular.
This path, however , presumes that the state acts regularly according to the law. What happened in April 2007 was far from regular and proper, and legal. The State itself has locked up these evidence and instructed that reeports of Police, NOA, SSS and other agencies should not be released. The State and its apparatus did not allow elections to take place and indeed, some judges themsleves, did not vote or did not see the ballot papers. It is a notorious fact that majority of Nigerians did not vote and would therefore be surprised at the judgement. Besides, the techniclaities and legalities involved in proving electoral fraud make it EASY for electoral offences to be committed. By choosing the path that it has chosen the Tribunal has simply given the green light that there should be no future free and fair elections. Given the extra ordinary circumstance of April 2007 and Yar Aduas admission of electoral fraud, the Tribunal has actually given people reason not to trust the judiciary.
I was not expecting the courts to give justice because, all through history justice has never been dispensed from the courts. The courts usally support the status quo and all persons who have fough for justice have always been convicted by regular courts applying existing laws. Just name people who have affected history and see whether they had the support of the courts.
Our struggle is to change the situation in Nigeria and ensure that the rights of people to vote are respected
This can not be done at the pleasure of the courts, the ruling pa
rty or Yar adua