kogiflame.com
By Professor Felix Akpan
Reading through snippets of Atiku’s Petition to the Electoral Tribunal, I now understand why some people believe lawyers would not make heaven. That’s for those of them who are interested in going to heaven. In Naija, most of them are more interested in going to the bank; heaven can wait.
This explains why it is difficult for some lawyers to tell their clients that they have a bad case. On that note, it seems that the SANs who crafted Atiku’s petition were more interested in his money and enriching our jurisprudence than winning the case.
The five pillars upon which the petition is built are as feeble as the 80 buildings marked for demolition by the Lagos State Government.
One would have thought that since PDP had agents in all the polling units across the country, it would be more expediential to present factual evidence from each polling unit to substantiate Atiku’s claim than rely on INEC’s server.
Undoubtedly, challenging Buhari’s candidacy after the election has been won and lost isn’t going to secure victory for Atiku at the Tribunal. That’s a pre-election matter that ought to have been dealt with even before we cast our ballots. So why now?
Supposedly, Atiku had won at the polls would anyone be asking the Tribunal to disqualify him because he is a Cameroonian ? Is he ?.
Such matter should have been raised and trashed before the election. That’s the same way Buhari’s certificate ought to have been treated.
Going by the Electoral Law, INEC has the power to disqualify any aspirant on such grounds before the election.
Evidentially, it is clear that the petition would not yield the desired result, which explains why Gbenga Daniel threw in the towel early enough to avoid a second defeat on the same matter. As a Christian, he knows affliction should not strike twice. God forbid!
For those of us still waiting on the Tribunal to restore Atiku’s “stolen” mandate, by the time the Tribunal finishes with the case, Next Level bus would have been filled with defectors.
The time to jump ship is now!
Professor Felix Akpan University of Calabar
