The Social Democratic Party (SDP) has condemned the supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Kogi State Government over their attempt to celebrate victory ahead of the Supreme Court judgment on the November governorship election, even before the apex court delivers its verdict.
The SDP candidate in the Kogi State governorship election, Muritala Ajaka had challenged the victory of Governor Usman Ododo over the November 11, 2023 governorship election, and after the Tribunal and Appeal Court gave victory to Ododo, the SDP flag bearer challenged the governor’s victory at the Supreme Court.
Ajaka had vowed to reclaim what he described as his ‘stolen mandate’ at the Supreme Court even as the SDP accused the Kogi State Government and the APC of taking to social media on Tuesday, August 6, 2024, to celebrate a purported victory in the case.
Director, New Media and Spokesman of the Muri/Sam Campaign Council, Isaiah Ijele, during a conference in Abuja on Thursday, appealed to the justices of the apex court to thoroughly examine the 2023 Kogi governorship case and maintain public confidence in its ability to deliver impartial and well-reasoned judgment.
Ijele said: “If you recall, we raised an alarm before the Tribunal Judgment that something is fundamentally wrong, that just a few days before the judgment, we’re not even aware that the judgment is going to be on May 27. We saw it in the media.
“It was the same APC people, the Ododo group, that were celebrating their victory, knowing the day of the judgment. As a spokesperson of the Campaign Council, I called our lawyers and they were not informed. They were informed on Sunday that the judgment indeed is going to be on Monday, May, 27. “And the judgment went in the favour of Ododo, the APC. They celebrated the judgment.
“We appealed to the Supreme Court. They just filed their defence, not up to 48 hours, and they are the same people who are giving the date of the judgment to be on August 16, already in favour of Ododo. We have copies of them that I have sent to many of the media houses. We don’t want to take it for granted. Something is fundamentally wrong with our judicial system.
“Justice in Nigeria is now too expensive. And we have people in government like Ododo occupying the Lugard House, approving billions upon billions for different projects that we don’t know, and we have not seen them.
“We want to let the judiciary know, the Supreme Court, know that we believe, as a campaign council, as also members of civil society organizations, they are going to uphold the rule of law, and they are not going to bastardise our case on the authors of technicalities. The Nigerian constitution is very important in Africa.”
Ijele recalled that the tribunal for the Bayelsa state governorship election that was held the same day as the Kogi poll affirmed the importance of providing the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) as evidence to prove allegations of over-voting. He said the SDP has provided enough BVAS evidence to prove its case.
Also speaking, another chieftain of the SDP, Ahmadu Alade, urged the apex court not to jettison the importance of BVAS while delivering its judgment.
He said that taxpayers’ money was used to purchase the technology and as such providing BVAS evidence is as much as providing physical witnesses.
He said “As it stands today, we are still going back to that orthodox method. The reason I said the orthodox method is that the moment BVAS was introduced, it became an innovation to eradicate what we’ve been going through. But that is not happening. We are still asked to go and produce witnesses.
“Now, if you said you purchased BVAS to help correct the abnormalities of electoral practices that were going on before, what is now happening? Everybody is going back again that we should go and start calling witnesses from their polling unit, which we know all the witnesses are always scared of appearing. And sometimes they will say these witnesses, even though they are appearing, they don’t allow them to cover their face.
“They open their faces and try to make sure that they expose them to these politicians. And when these people will be kidnapped, when these people will be dealt with, nobody says anything. Even if their family comes to cry out, nobody says anything.”