Professionals for Good Governance and Social Justice (PGGSJ) has joined voices to the growing condemnation of the recent judgement of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) on 26, September which affirmed President Bola Tinubu as duly elected despite alleged irregularities that attended the election.

Speaking weekend via a press release signed jointly by the Convener, Dr Ben Chukwu, and Head of Media, Dr Emmanuel Ugorji, PGGSJ contended that the judgement clearly showed that the country has come under state capture.

“State capture as defined by the World Bank in 2000, is the systemic political corruption in which private interests significantly influence a state’s decision-making processes to their own advantage.

“This is where Nigeria, as a country, is today,” PGGSJ lamented.

According to the group made up of Nigerian professionals at home and largely abroad, the election held over six months ago held out promise of paradigm shift from a perennially corrupt electoral umpire.

“Nigerians, young and old alike, desperate to participate in a transparent, free and fair elections since the last one in 1993, believed in the promise and mobilised to campaign and to vote like never before.

“But alas, it all turned out a charade; an electoral body that never meant to be true to themselves, and without a sense of history, simply sabotaged themselves, got lilly-livered as the vultures that have held generations of Nigerians captive for decades, swooped on them, and they ended up betraying Nigerians,” PGGSJ said.

The group further characterised the six months of judicial deliberation as “gerrymandering”.

“A tribunal, of five Justices, four men and one woman – all of whom we thought would be concerned about their place in history; each of whom must be either a grandfather or a grandmother, chose to leave the substance of the issues before them and tried hiding behind a litany of technicalities that made a mockery of their persons and the profession they represent,” the group added.

It further raised 16 posers which it said should be answered by the PEPT and the Judiciary in the country, among them:

“How could you sit for six months and at the end use 10 hours to read a judgement without any tinge of justice?

“On almost every issue raised by the petitioners, including issues with precedence and already decided on by their superiors, they had their own ideas.

“They didn’t only tear apart key portions of the electoral act and the constitution, but also literally made great efforts to legalise and institutionalise criminality.”

Making specific reference to the perjury aspect of the judgement, the group asked: “When is a man guilty of perjury?

“Or is it a crime for everyone else but Tinubu? What of others, including a Bayelsa governorship pair, who were disqualified on the eve of their swearing in?

“What makes Tinubu different?”

PGGSJ also raised posers on other aspects of the judgement like “the inconsistencies in Tinubu’s certificates; Vice President Kassim Shettima’s double nomination and Tinubu’s dual nationality”, which, according to the group, Tinubu lied about, and many others.