Unfortunately, the battle for the survival of the Local Governments in Oyo state have shifted wholesome to the Judiciary.
I used the word wholesome emphatically because the evil perpetuated by Governor Makinde and OYSIEC traversed the over six thousand polling units, the 351 wards and the 33 Local Governments.
It is as if April 27 never happened.
Another phase of wastage of public funds have been opened by Governor Makinde and his OYSIEC.
The opposition parties who are rightly aggrieved will definitely try to ventilate their grievances before the election petition Tribunals in line with section 33 to 42 of the OYSIEC Law.
Certainly, the OYSIEC would have to defend the charade it called an election and It would have to engage the services of Lawyers, most likely, Senior Advocates of Nigeria.
The expenses for this Lawyers is on the state Government.
Who even knows whether those in OYSIEC are rejoicing at the prospects of making more money through this anticipated litigations?
This is Nigeria and we all know how this things work.
Now that the Electoral umpire have failed to give Oyo state a credible election as promised, the onus have shifted to the Judiciary to do either of two things, one, to do justice to all manner of people without fear or favor, or two, to toe the line of OYSIEC and do justice in a manner that will favor Governor Makinde and OYSIEC.
Not many are optimistic of getting justice from our Courts this days and you may not be able to fault their pessimism.
Our Judiciary have a lot to do to convince Nigerians, many of who currently hold the views that our Courts no longer serve as Temples of justice.
However, the Oyo state Judiciary have many times demonstrated determination and commitment to justice and the rules of Law.
In the popular case of Joshua Adewuyi Akintaro against OYSIEC and others, the Oyo state Judiciary demonstrated uncommon courage and determination.
Dr. Joshua Adewuyi Akintaro had contested under the Alliance for Democracy, AD against Elder M.O Kolawole of the ruling PDP for the chairmanship of Ibarapa East.
At the end of the polls, Dr. Akintaro of the AD was victorious against the ruling party candidate but the OYSIEC declared the PDP candidate as winner, claiming that the AD presented two candidates for the election.
The matter proceeded to the Tribunal and both the Election petition Tribunal and the Appeal Tribunals overruled the OYSIEC and returned Dr. Akintaro of the AD as winner against the ruling party candidate.
The matter was taken to the regular Court of Oyo state but Oyo state Judiciary stood firmly with the Tribunal’s findings.
Eventually, Dr. Akintaro was sworn in as Chairman under a PDP Governor and that was all thanks to the Oyo state Judiciary.
Question is, do we still have the caliber of the highly principled Justices who braved the odds to give justice to Akintaro and the AD?
Time will tell.
The greatest bottleneck against would be petitioners at the Tribunal is the issue of time.
Interestingly, the OYSIEC Law allows for only fourteen days for the filing of petitions as against the twenty one days recognized by the Electoral Law.
I think this is a great anomaly targeted at frustrating litigants and protecting electoral fraud.
This is an area opposition political parties must seriously look at and see how they can ask the judiciary to strike down such wicked section of the OYSIEC Law.
Note that, just like the Electoral Act requires front loading of witnesses evidence on oaths, so also does the OYSIEC Law also requires it.
How cumbersome and almost impossible can it be for litigants to get a good job done in just fourteen days?
Similarly, the number of days left for the proceedings of the Tribunal is ridiculously too short.
If I’m correct, 60 days, from the day of filing the petition is all that is provided for by the Law and 30 days for the Appeal starting from the day the Notice is filed with just seven days provided between judgment of the Tribunal and the filing of a Notice of Appeal.
Fortunately, the OYSIEC Law in section 34(1) thereof empowers allows for the establishment of more than one panel of the Tribunal and I think litigants should rely on this section to demand for more Panels from the Chief Judge of the state if only one Panel is what was set up.
This will enable the litigants to ventilate their grievances and it will also protect the rights of litigants to be heard.
The right to be heard is one guaranteed by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended.
Oyo state Judiciary will be in public focus in the days to come.
The Local Government Election purportedly conducted by OYSIEC on April 27 have become a subject of daily discuss on the Media, both online and the regular Media.
It is also a subject already been discussed outside the shores of this country.
Just as History beckoned on OYSIEC and Its Leadership, thus, it is beckoning on the Judiciary.
It is common knowledge that judgments are given based on the materials placed before the Courts.
We have also however seen where enough materials are placed before Courts and yet, the employment of technicalities swayed justice.
Every right thinking citizens of Oyo state are looking up to the Judiciary to not only do justice but to do substantial justice.
May God help Oyo state Judiciary in this onerous task.
SOLA ABEGUNDE.
