The Apex court in Nigeria also known as the Supreme court sacked Emeka Ihedioha of Peoples Democratic Party on the 14th of January 2020, and Hope Uzodinma of All Progressives Party was declared as the governor of Imo State.
A senior Legal Luminary and Political analyst Mrs Iyabo Awokoya took her time to analyse the Supreme Court judgement that was earlier made available to the public from her twitter handle @iyaboawokoya:
2. The burden of proof rests on whosoever avers. If you say something happened you prove it. Hope and APC said results from 388 units were excluded. This was their averment & they proved it by bringing the Police on subpoena to bring the copy of the results in those polling units
— Arinola I. Awokoya (@iyaboawokoya) January 24, 2020
4. This is in accordance with the Evidence Act (no be me talk am). I watched a twitter clip of a TV persona calling what the Police tendered "photocopy". No Madam, you are wrong. It pains me when those who know NOT, act with such chutzpah and start to believe their own ignorance/
— Arinola I. Awokoya (@iyaboawokoya) January 24, 2020
6. The onus then shifted to the Respondents, PDP/ Ihedioha/INEC to disprove. At this point what they should have done was to produce their own results to show that Uzodinma's results were a lie or untrue. In fact INEC averred that Hope's results could only be a forgery. In law/
— Arinola I. Awokoya (@iyaboawokoya) January 24, 2020
8. If the results were not excluded as Hope averred, why would INEC be unable to show the results & where same had been included in collation. Since APC/Hope tendered the results forms EC8series, why was it difficult to impugn them. Remember that the results Hope tendered were/
— Arinola I. Awokoya (@iyaboawokoya) January 24, 2020
10. caught on this and wrote a dissenting opinion which the S.Ct found persuasive. My conclusion is this. Politicians will need to be more disciplined & take the Electoral laws more seriously. We are back in a dispensation of law & not of clout. This S.Ct is saying, rules must be
— Arinola I. Awokoya (@iyaboawokoya) January 24, 2020
12. Camerouni. This S.Ct is not to be browbeaten & I am not sure anyone dares offer then bribe now. Try it and you will find yourself most likely in the police net. I find INEC to be clowning. It is ridiculous to be neutral in defence of an election that you conducted./
— Arinola I. Awokoya (@iyaboawokoya) January 24, 2020
14. NOT CANCELLED. If they were cancelled INEC and the PDP team would have had something to show to give reasons of the cancellation, but in this case, they simply made the results become abracadabra-magically poof into the air. Hmmmmm.
— Arinola I. Awokoya (@iyaboawokoya) January 24, 2020
14. NOT CANCELLED. If they were cancelled INEC and the PDP team would have had something to show to give reasons of the cancellation, but in this case, they simply made the results become abracadabra-magically poof into the air. Hmmmmm.
— Arinola I. Awokoya (@iyaboawokoya) January 24, 2020