Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu has expressed concerns over conflicting court orders on a particular matter.
Yakubu said the usual resort of politicians to obtaining conflicting court orders has rubbished the legal concept of “stare decisis” as what is supposedly settled in law has now become unsettled.
Besides, he said such conflicting orders are making the work of the commission to be difficult.
Yakubu spoke on the backdrop of the various court orders that have emanated from different courts of the same jurisdiction on the same matter. The counter court orders had necessitated the summoning of five state Chief Justices by the Chief Justice of Nigeria last week.
Yakubu disclosed this on Monday in Abuja during the commission’s third quarterly meeting with political parties.
He said; “I cannot conclude my remarks without touching on the issue of litigations, particularly the conflicting orders emanating from Courts of coordinate jurisdiction.
“I am aware that some of the cases are still in Court and therefore sub judice. I must say that some of the decided cases are making our work difficult and we have been crying out loud for a long time. In particular, some pre-election litigations relating to the nomination of candidates for elections were not determined until after the elections.
“Consequently, in some instances, political parties were declared winners without candidates to immediately receive the Certificates of Return on account of protracted and conflicting litigations or where Courts rather than votes determine winners of elections.
“This situation is compounded by cases on the leadership of political parties, thereby making the exercise of our regulatory responsibilities difficult. It appears that in a number of electoral cases in Nigeria today, the settled law is now unsettled and the time-honoured principle of ‘Stare decisis’ does not seem to matter any longer.
“What is most disconcerting for us is that the more INEC strives to improve the credibility and transparency of our electoral process, the more extraneous obstacles are put in our way through litigations.
“However, the Commission appreciates the recent statement by His Lordship the Chief Justice of Nigeria as well as the strongly worded concern by the Nigerian Bar Association. We will work with both the Bar and the Bench to defend the electoral process in the best interest of our democracy.
“By the same token, as Chairmen and leaders of political parties, you have a role to play. I wish to remind you that INEC is both an umpire and a regulator. The Commission is an umpire in dealing even-handedly with political parties collectively, but when it comes to the management of intra-party affairs, it is a regulator. We will play our role decisively”, he added.
