Judiciary shouldn’t determine election winners – Bode George

Chief Olabode George, former Deputy National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), has expressed concerns about the judiciary’s role in determining election winners in Nigeria.

He described it as the judiciary taking away the right of the people to determine poll winners.

He raised the concern at a press briefing held in his office at Ikoyi on Monday following the announcement by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja that it would deliver its judgment on Wednesday.

Speaking at the briefing, George questioned why the judiciary had been making pronouncements to determine election winners rather than order INEC to re-conduct the elections to aid the emergence of real winners.

His words: “Our country has been doing very little positively and very much negatively. In the last few days, I have been thinking as a former military officer and civilian since I have served five presidents.

”Our electoral process is shambolic and nonsensical and makes the country nosediving. It is the manipulation of the system.

“A glitch on the day of the election is unforgivable, but the INEC chairman told us they were ready, but with what happened, generations to come will never forgive him.

”The most contentious issue in Nigeria today is the judiciary; it is one of the pillars of government.

”What we understand by democracy is the government of the people by the people and for the people, but in our case, it shouldn’t be the government of the judiciary by the judiciary and for the judiciary. Is that democratic?

”It is the will of the people that should prevail. If you discover anything wrong, ask them to go back and conduct a fresh election, even if it takes a hundred times. The job of the judiciary is not to tell us who lost or who won.”