It is up to the justices, he continued, to consider the evidence put up by the parties, apply the law, and render a judgement.
Femi Falana, a senior lawyer for Nigeria (SAN), asserts that the presidential election petitions are causing the judiciary to receive unprecedented threats and extortion. Falana claims that the threats are unnecessary because there is still time to file an appeal with the Supreme Court.
No election petition has garnered as much attention in the nation since colonial control, according to Falana, a guest on Monday’s Politics Today on Channels Television.
Since the colonial era, we have had election petitions, but none have prompted this level of judicial pressure and extortion.
“I’m concerned that some individuals may think the Court of Appeal’s ruling on the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal is the end of the matter. In the event that a party loses on Wednesday, they still have the option to appeal to the Supreme Court. Therefore, what is the rationale for the current cheap blackmail? The senior attorney asked.
Asserting that this was not what election tribunals were for, the senior lawyer blamed the blackmail and intimidation on new voters who, in his opinion, felt that their candidate had to be certified the winner.
He asserted that the justices must consider the testimony of the parties, apply the law, and render a judgement after considering the facts.
“As they say, even if the heavens fall and the heavens don’t fall nonetheless, the judges must not be frightened; they must give their ruling regardless of threats of blackmail or other forms of intimidation if they are confident that they can defend it.
They must evaluate the evidence, apply the law, and make a determination. There will be winners and losers in this case, Falana argued, but those who are unhappy with their loss will have another chance to go the Supreme Court and prove that the Court of Appeal was wrong.
According to Channels media, the Court of Appeal stated on Monday that it will rule on the presidential election petitions on Wednesday and added that the hearings will be available for live broadcast by interested media stations.
The tribunal has received a plea from the Labour Party (LP), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), as well as each of their presidential candidates, asking that President Bola Tinubu’s victory in the 2023 election be declared invalid.
