WARRI – Mr Robinson Ariyo, the All Progressives Congress (APC)House of Assembly candidate for Warri South Constituency 1, Delta State, has described as ‘a rape on our democracy’ , the decision of the State House of Assembly Election Petition Tribunal to dismiss his case on the grounds that the Electoral Act does not recognise Card Readers.
Delivering judgement, Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Umar Muhammed, in Asaba, the state capital, had noted that ‘the card reader is not yet law’ and therefore could not be relied upon in determining the validity of an election.
He thereby threw out Mr Ariyo’s case against Godwin Abigor, candidate of the Social Democratic Party, maintaining that the card reader is unknown to the law under which the election was conducted.
Ariyo, who said he was heading for the appeal court in Benin, Edo State, noted that if his case was quashed on the ground that the card reader was not recognised, then all other elections by persons currently holding elective positions should be cancelled, as according to him, what is good for the goose, is good for the gander.
He said: ,”I have come to the conclusion that the judgment is most unfortunate and one which if the society is to grow, must be challenged at the level of supervisory court, and in this instance at the level of Court of Appeal. What exactly was the judgment based on? Sadly the entire judgment was based on the position that the use of card reader is unknown to our electoral law because it is not contained in the electoral act of 2011.
I want us to appreciate the fact that the intention of using card readers was to tract the irregularities that have characterized election malpractices in the past sixteen years. This particular tenure was the first opportunity accorded to Nigerians to correct this anomaly”.
While supporting his position with several court documents, the lawyer insisted that since the number of voters exceeded the number of accredited persons, the court should have ordered a rerun,as it was obvious that INEC in Delta State whimsically and capriciously allotted votes to the purported winner.
