‘Politicians Should Help Us’ – INEC Decries Conflicting Court Orders

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has condemned the conflicting orders emanating from different courts in the country.

Naija News had reported that the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Ibrahim Muhammad, summoned six Chief Judges over conflicting orders emanating from their courts of co-ordinate jurisdictions.

Confirming the summon, media aide to the CJN, Ahuraka Yusuf Isah, said the judges summoned are the Chief Judges of Rivers, Kebbi, Cross River, Anambra, Jigawa and Imo States.

Speaking at the third quarterly meeting with political parties in Abuja on Monday, INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, asked politicians to help make the commission’s job easier.

The INEC boss also asked political parties to settle their leadership crisis internally instead of burdening the commission with litigations.

Yakubu added that the conflicting court orders would hamper the electoral commission’s efforts to improve the credibility and transparency of the electoral process.

He, however, appreciated the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) for their stance on the conflicting court judgements.

Yakubu stated that the commission will work with both the Bar and the Bench to defend the electoral process in the best interest of the nation’s democracy.

He said: “On the issue of litigations, particularly the conflicting orders emanating from Courts of coordinate jurisdiction. I am aware that some of the cases are still in Court and therefore sub judice. I must say that some of the decided cases are making our work difficult and we have been crying out loud for a long time.

“In particular, some pre-election litigations relating to the nomination of candidates for elections were not determined until after the elections. Consequently, in some instances, political parties were declared winners without candidates to immediately receive the Certificates of Return (CoR) on account of protracted and conflicting litigations or where courts rather than votes determine winners of elections.

“This situation is compounded by cases on the leadership of political parties, thereby making the exercise of our regulatory responsibilities difficult. It appears that in a number of electoral cases in Nigeria today, the settled law is now unsettled and the time-honoured principle of ‘Stare decisis’ does not seem to matter any longer.”