Obi won on social media but lost presidential poll – Olatubora SAN

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In this interview with FRIDAY OLOKOR, a former Commissioner for Education in Ondo State, Dr. Remi Olatubora(SAN), analyses the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal and how it will enrich the nation’s jurisprudence

You are aware of the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal. What are the lessons to be learnt by candidates as Nigeria prepares for future elections?

One thing I will say straight away is that whoever as candidate intends to approach the law court, or election tribunal, for perceived injustice in the conduct of election or redress of perceived injustice, must be prepared very well.

The petitioner must be prepared, even before the election, to look into the possibility of ending up the race in post-election court, that is election tribunal, and that will mean that from the moment you are assigning your polling agents to the various units, you give the necessary training of what to look for and the note to take.

And then you must also be prepared that as the results are being compiled and collated, you are also on your own collating reports from your polling units and then, of course, having your polling units’ agents contact so that you can call them any time that is required to tell the election court exactly what transpired. This will serve a useful purpose. If you have to file a petition for example, the reciprocity of notes taken by your polling agents will be a primary source of material for your lawyers who will trail your election cases if you will have to go to court. What happened during the day the PEPT gave judgment was that people made allegations of non-compliance in respect of some areas without specifically identifying the polling units where those perceived non-compliance took place. For example, somebody said that there was massive non-compliance in AkwaIbom State, or there was massive non-compliance in Ondo State. But it’s not only about the state, you will have to ask which local government, and when you identify the local government, in which ward of the local government. When you identify the ward, you need to go ahead and ask which of the polling units.

So, any complaint about the conduct of election must be referable to a particular polling unit. The nature of your complaints with respect to those identified or disputed polling units must also be specifically stated in your case. If you do not state them in your case, they cannot lead to evidence in what you have not stated in your pleading.  The lawyer will say that evidence led in the case of fact that is not pleaded goes to no issue. Going forward, any person who is going for election must prepare to win and must be prepared to lose and this will require that you prepare yourself and your agents and have it at the back of your mind that you might need to approach post-election litigation so that you will not be caught napping and you will not base your complaints on hearsay or speculation. The law requires specific complaint.