By CHARLES IWUOHA

The Coalition for the Protection of Democracy (COPDEM), has faulted the recent Supreme Court ruling affirming President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s victory in the February 25, 2023 Presidential election.

The group expressed dismay on the legitimate challenge by opposition parties against the failing of the nation's electoral system, while accusing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the major culprit.

A statement on Wednesday, signed by Great lmo Jonathan of COPDEM’s Media Team, said the group aims to take the country back from the hands of those that have ruined it.

The statement reads in part: “We have also convened this event to inform Nigerians about our next line of action as Coalition for the Protection of Democracy (COPDEM).We aim to take the country back from the hands of those that have ruined it.

“Despite global outcry, the Supreme Court, like the Appeal Court before it, chose to make the Nigerian jurisprudence a laughingstock of the global community.

“In reaffirming Chief Bola Tinubu as the duly elected President in the presidential election of 25, February 2023, the Supreme Court has chosen to invert common sense, throw reason, logic, and principles of justice out of the window. As Nigerians, we ask, please, what is law and why do we go to court?

“To a lay man, law is simply the ratification of those common convention, principles, ethics, and mores we have all chosen to live by as humans in a society.

“We make them into a document and create infrastructures and institutions to interpret them whenever there is need for clarity.

“Therefore, the court, as such institution, carries the burden of reminding us why we are humans and how far we have travelled from primitivity, as hunters, gatherers, wanderers that are not bound by laws but simply living in a Hobbesian state of nature.

“The court and laws are there to inhibit by punishing such primitive tendencies to 'snatch it,' “grab it’ and ‘run with it’ like we saw on 25 February this year.

“Courts and laws should exist to chide, reprimand, and necessarily sanction actors of such conduct, either as individuals or as institutions.”

According to the statement, law reminds the need to set standards and follow them strictly. When the law and courts fail to do their duty, anarchy prevails, general disillusionment about the place of the once hallowed temple of justice sets in. We begin to see good as bad, and bad as good.

“The character of Judges is public property. Justice must be rooted in confidence, and confidence is destroyed when right-minded people go away thinking: “The Judge is biased.”

“To our utter dismay, eternal shame and pain, the Supreme Court, in its recent Judgement in affirming Tinubu as president, has set a dangerous precedent where, no matter the gravity of an alleged offense, the suspect can readily escape justice if he is smart enough to plead technicalities.

“According to the presiding justice in the case, he stated: ‘We have reiterated on several occasions that ours is not only a Court of law but public policy. Forgery of certificate for the purpose of election and electoral processes and forgery under criminal law are not the same issue. Forgery under the Electoral Act is a specific law on forgery or presentation of a forged certification for the purpose of election. The best forum for electoral forgery is election tribunal as against general criminal trial. This is what played out, rightly in this appeal’.

“The Supreme Court treated the issue of Tinubu's forgery as if under the criminal law. What the electoral act is saying is different from what the law of forgery under criminal law has provided, the court, if not biased, should interpret the law as it is, anyone who has presented a forged certificate should be disqualified from contesting for any office within Nigeria.

“We hereby call on all Nigerians in authority to heed the call of Hon. Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad, to amend the laws and rescue our judiciary.

“Hon. Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad said it loud and clear last week that our Supreme Court of today has been punctuated by turbulent cracks made awry and askew. He bemoaned a situation where the powers of the Chief Justice of Nigeria is excessive and he lamented the Depleting Number of Justices at the Supreme Court.”

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