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The Coalition for United Political Parties (CUPP) and a few Senior Advocates of Nigeria have demanded that the Electoral Act be amended.
This followed the ruling delivered by the Supreme Court regarding the appeals of the governorship elections in Zamfara, Kano, and the Plateau. Naija News recalls that the Supreme Court overturned the Court of Appeal’s ruling in the Plateau and Kano state governorship election disputes. However, concerns have been raised about the petitions of lawmakers sacked by the Court of Appeal. Political analysts suggests that the the sacked lawmakers would have been re-instated if their appeal gets to the Supreme Court. However, speaking on the need for a constitutional amendment, Chukwuma-Machukwu Ume, SAN, who lamented that the 2023 general election was marred by injustice, called for the need to refine the country’s electoral system to make it more manageable. Ume said, “The whole gamut of elections in 2023 seems to have been fraught with a lot of injustice. I need you to feel the pulses of the Labour Party, PDP, and Allied Peoples Movement members in their election petitions. There is a need to consider another approach in our electoral litigation. “I am thinking that while the National Assembly is moving us up there to refine our electoral system to make it more manageable, election petitioners should no longer be seen as busybodies instead of social crusaders.” In addition, Adegoke Rasheed, SAN, called for a legislative intervention or a shift in the judicial approach to give succor to those who have experienced a miscarriage of justice. He said, “This is not an indictment on the judiciary, neither is it an indictment on the court of appeal. There are several other cases decided by the court that have been upheld by the apex court. So when the court of appeal is found not to be correct. The warning by the justices is to ensure that the judiciary self-regulates itself. “As regards people who have suffered a miscarriage of justice, in taking care of such in the future, we can call for a legislative intervention or change the judicial approach. ” Also calling for a review of the electoral act in a statement released on Sunday by its National Secretary, Peter Ameh, the CUPP, demanded that the constitution be changed to let all appeals from the National Assembly be concluded at the highest court. The statement read, “CUPP hereby calls on the National Assembly to commence without delay the amendment of Sections 233. (1)(e) and 246. (1)(3) of the 1999 Constitution as Amended to extend appellate jurisdiction for State and National Assembly election disputes to the Supreme Court to avert a repeat of the disaster of injustices meted to the validly elected National and State Assembly Members of PDP and Labour Party extraction from Plateau, Enugu, Abia, and other states. “This call has become necessary due to the irreparable damage caused to the elected members who have been unjustly removed from their legitimate seats by the Court of Appeal despite the plethora of earlier decided and settled cases by the Supreme Court court, which by the doctrine of stare decisis binds the Court of Appeal.”
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