As reactions continue to trail President Bola Tinubu’s Certificate legal battle, an Abuja based legal practitioner, Chukwudi Ezeobika has picked holes in the Independent National Electoral Commission’s handling of documents submitted to it during elections.
The former Anambra South Senatorial candidate blamed the Prof. Yakubu Mahmood-led INEC for not being diligent in scrutinising documents, thereby making them to foist an illegitimate government on Nigerians.
According to him, INEC ought to have exercise due diligence in conducting proper investigation on information and or certificates submitted to it by persons aspiring for public offices.
Speaking with journalists on Sunday in Abuja, he said: “Having received huge budgets which sums up in billions of Nigerian naira, both from the Nigerian government and international donors, it remains inconceivable how the INEC Chairman, Prof. Yakubu Mahmood could betray the very trust bestowed upon him by Nigerians to give them a brighter future through the conduct of a free, fair and credible election.
“The decision by Bola Ahmed Tinubu to aspire to become a President in Nigeria knowing fully well the extent of his dishonesty is troubling.
“President Bola Tinubu’s decision to remain in office after recent revelations by the Chicago State University on his academic records following an order of a United States District Court in Northern Illinois, remains not only reprehensible but repulsive.
“These certificates were consciously and duly deposed to by President Bola Tinubu before a Commissioner for Oaths and were later submitted to INEC in the relevant forms prior to the general elections.
“Nigerians have, to a great extent, lost hope and confidence in the Nigerian electoral system as well as the judiciary as justice has consistently been sacrificed on the alter of technicalities and or procedures.
“The relevancy and morality of laws enacted by the National Assembly and judgements delivered by the Courts respectively, have become not only alien but at variance with the wishes, desires and aspirations of the Nigerian people especially her teeming youths.
“The Judiciary in any democracy remains the last hope of the common man and when the integrity of any Judicial system is in question and or undermined, then the entire superstructure, including the continued existence of such society is in ruins.
“The time for the Nigerian Judiciary to redeem its integrity and image is now and the future of the Nigerian State will ultimately be shaped by the actions and or inactions of persons appointed to admister justice in our Courts.”
