Judgement of the tribunal: Adegboruwa tells the FG, unbundle INEC to produce credible elections

Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has demanded the separation of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

For credible elections, he asserted that INEC urgently needs to be deconsolidated.

In response to the tribunal ruling that upheld President Bola Tinubu’s victory, he said what he did.

Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and Peter Obi of the Labour Party filed complaints with the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal disputing Tinubu’s victory, but both were denied.

Adegboruwa noted that the petitions could have been settled only on legal issues and within a few days of the election, but he said that the tribunal’s decision required sober contemplation.

There can be no true victory in the court’s resolution of the legal concerns when the foundation of our democratic engagements appears to have been hijacked and corrupted, according to a message on his Facebook page.

We should look back and analyse the electoral process and the litigation that followed it as part of the lesson we can learn from this process. A credible election in Nigeria cannot be produced by INEC in its current form.

“Overall, perhaps there was an overly optimistic hope that the status quo would be overturned, despite the fact that many of the legal theories raised had long before been decided by the supreme court.

“We owe Nigeria an urgent duty to dismantle INEC, urgently,” the statement reads. “While encouraging all parties to continue in towing the paths already defined by law for the ventilation of grievances.”