As the presidential election petition tribunal gets towards the finishing line… Nigerians have refused to take their eyes off the judiciary.
You’d recall that we reported #PEPTLiveUpdates : INEC Deliberately frustrating Labour party lawyers(Part 2).
From the updates so far, it’s becoming increasingly evident that The current judge at the Tribunal isn’t serious about punishing INEC as they have been playing with the Labour party lawyers by refusing to provide them with all the materials demanded.
However, Obidient soldiers have decided to flash 📸 more light on Justice Haruna Tsammani.
https://twitter.com/aku_buo/status/1671195476631371782?t=nguwj359YiKwT5IdnF9t6w&s=19
Yes, Dr. Livy Uzoukwu can file an application to punish INEC for not providing required documents, and he knows that, but let’s not lose sight of the issues here.
1. Dr. Uzoukwu has complained a million times that INEC is non-compliant, starting from the petition filed in March. 2. He stated it at the pre-hearing multiple times.
3. He brought it up last week and also yesterday. At no point did the judges advise him to go ahead and file an application to punish INEC for not providing the requested documents. They shouted him down and asked him to “work together” with INEC’s lawyers. After the incident of yesterday, seeing the online outrage, these judges suddenly realized what they should have known — that INEC will never provide those documents, so they are now pushing back at the LP legal team like it’s their fault that INEC is non-compliant. They are shifting the blame which is counterproductive here. How is punishing INEC effective? Don’t they already know that punishment is better than providing those documents? This is what Mahmood Yakubu wants! Why are the judges playing into their hands? This is how gaslighting works. First, they ignore the issues then make everything appear like it’s your fault, and have then have people focus on you instead of the problems.
We don’t want to “punish” INEC just before the trial ends, we WANT those documents they declared Tinubu as the winner with!
(by – General Oluchi)
Let Me Make This Very Clear, LP is NOT Expecting to Win Based on Evidence from INEC but There Are Documents Required by Law for them to Provide as Subpoenaed However, They’ve Been Playing Games On This But We Will Keep Our Eyes on the Judiciary, No Blinking! (by – MissPearls)
What are the implications of INEC not providing ALL the documents requested by Peter Obi and the LP legal team?
@TEzeike explores possible options:
1. Contempt of Court: INEC the certifying authority was legally obligated to produce the documents and failed to do so
without a valid reason, the court may find them in contempt which may result in fines and or imprisonment.
2. Adverse Inference: In this case INEC being a party and failing to produce these documents, the court may have to make an adverse inference.
This means that the court can infer that the documents, had they been produced, would have been unfavorable to the party that failed to produce them.
3. Delay in Proceedings: The court proceedings may be delayed until the documents are produced, especially if they are considered crucial to the case by way of extending LP time to tender evidence say by a week or two.
4. Impact on Credibility: INEC being the certifying authority remaining credibility could be damaged, which could impact its standing in the current case.
Justice Tsammani should understand the gravity of what’s on his table and not play pranks on Millions of Nigerians whose fate are hanging on a cliff……
We’re watching more than ever….