Civil society groups decry courts’ involvement in electoral litigations, disputations

Over 70 civil society organisations (CSOs), on Friday, expressed concern over what they called the perplexing orders and injunctions of the courts in the fallouts of the March 9 governorship and house of assembly elections in parts of the country.

According to the CSOs, the courts have gotten involved in electoral litigations and disputations in a manner that weakens the credibility of our electoral system issuing perplexing orders and injunctions that constrains INEC’s ability to fulfil its constitutional functions of conducting elections.

The Convener of the group, under the auspices of the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, Mr Clement Nwankwo, made the remark in Abuja at a press briefing on the preliminary statement in respect of the supplementary elections scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday.

“Situation Room will additionally like to express concern about the emerging trend of escalating judicial involvement in what should ordinarily be matters outside the purview of the courts across the country.

“Situation Room is worried about this trend and its potential of impugning and damaging respect for the courts and justice system in Nigeria as well as derogating on the credibility of elections,” he said.

Nwankwo called on the courts in the country, including the National Judicial Council (NJC) to put an end to the development.

He called on the security agencies invited by INEC to assist in the conduct of the poll to conduct themselves in a nonpartisan and professional manner.

According to him, Situation Room will like to reiterate that Section 29(3) of the Electoral Act defines this role in the elections and that it will be illegal for security services to operate outside of the roles defined for them by INEC.

“The security services should publicly commit to steps that will reassure the public on the security of election reruns.

” They should act on guidance from INEC on deployment of officers for election duties and share all details with the commission,” he said.

The convener, who urged INEC to ensure that the polls are conducted in a free and fair manner, said its should also ensure that its processes are respected and implemented.

“The Situation Room expects that logistics for the elections are in place and the collation of results conducted in a transparent manner,” he added.

He called on Nigerians in the affected areas where the supplementary polls would hold to come out and freely exercise their votes.

 Nwankwo hinted that the Situation Room would observe the governorship rerun in Bauchi, Benue, Kano, Plateau and Sokoto States, including the area council elections in FCT.