Supreme Court ruling has strenghtened Democracy- Faduyile.
– Steve Ovirih.
An Ondo South APC stakeholder and Special Adviser on Health, Ondo State, Prof. Dayo Faduyile,OON,has reacted that Democracy has once again gotten a new lease of life in Nigeria, courtesy of the Supreme Court ruling which unanimously agreed that President Bola Tinubu won the February 25th Presidential election.
Petitioners, it will be recalled , had appealled the ruling of the Justice Tsamani led Presidential Election Petition Tribunal ( PEPT) , which had declared Bola Tinubu the legally elected President of Nigeria. The three major Petitioners had been All Progressives Movement( APM), Labour Party (LP) and Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP). while the two arrowheads contending the outcome of the election were Dr. Peter Obi of Labour Party, who came third in the poll and Turaki Adamawa, former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who emerged the second runner up.
The Justice Inyang Okoro led Supreme Court Panel ruled that the reliefs sought by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar had been discharged with at the Presidential election tribunal , adding that the new reliefs Atiku sought required proofs beyond reasonable doubt , which was lacking in the argument of the Petitioners, stressing that the Supreme Court is not a court of first instance that will accommodate new prayers and pleadings that were not adjudicated on at the tribunal. The court knocked Peter Obi and his counsels for lack of diligent prosecution.
Prof. Dayo Faduyile while fielding questions from thepolity.net in the course of an exclusive telephone conversation noted that the Petitioners deserve applause for helping to strengthen the cause of Democracy in Nigeria, adding that now that they have all gone through the whole gamut of the judicial process to prove a point and seek judicial interprétations on the process of the February 25th election, they should move beyond been sour losers by joinning hands with President Bola Tinubu as he strides towards giving the nation the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda.’
Prof. Faduyile avered that election petition are instruments of strenghtening the legality of the electoral process, therefore those who have the courage of their conviction to prove a point at such tribunals should be seen as agents of furthering the Democratic Process, adding that there is however the need to draw the line between fostering the cause of Democracy and turning to enemy of the state. He said it will furher confirm Atiku and Obi as Democrats if they can take the next bold step of congratulating Asiwaju Bola Tinubu whom the majority of Nigerian voters voted for and whom they believed had the magic wand to turn the country around for good.
Prof. Faduyile who used the medium of the exclusive chat to salute the courage of President Bola Tinubu for not reacting to all the unnecessary provocations on the news and social media while the matter lasted at the Supreme Court advised that the President should be magnanimous in victory by extending hand of fellowship to all the arrowheads of the opposition, stressing that the collaborative effort of the President which had factored former Rivers Governor, Nyesom Wike, from the opposition party into his government as a substantive and keyholder portfolio Minister shows that President Tinubu is a father to all.
Fadule equally added that with the appeals done and dusted at The Supreme Court the President will be able to govern without ligative distractions.
