Legal luminary, Ikonne, picks holes in presidential tribunal judgment

A legal luminary, Barrister Kenneth Ikonne (SAN), has picked several holes in judgment of the Presidential Election Petition tribunal which affirmed the victory of President Bola Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential election.

After more than nine hours of examining the petitions and defence of the parties, the five-man panel led by Haruna Tsammani on Wednesday ruled that “Tinubu is returned as duly elected president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.

The tribunal said the petitions filed by Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) challenging Tinubu’s victory were “all devoid of merit”.

Ikonne in a note seen by National Daily, said the Court of Appeal was merely enacting a factual impossibility, which has invariably resulted in a miscarriage of Justice, with the resultant striking out of critical oral and documentary evidence of petitioners’ witnesses.

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“The petition must be filed within 21 days of the declaration of the result of the election.  Within those 21 days, the panel which will issue and sign the subpoenas wouldn’t even have been inaugurated.

“How then do you compel the INEC chairman or REC to donate to you a witness statement on oath against his wish, without a subpoena ordering them to do so?

“The applicable legal maxim in the circumstances is LES NON COGIT AD IMPOSSIBILIA , meaning “the law does not compel the impossible”!

“Also applicable is the maxim, IMPOTENTIA EXCUSAT LEGEM”, meaning “the law does not punish a person for not doing what he lacked power to do”: SEE HALSBURY’s LAWS OF ENGLAND, 4th Edition Reissue, volume 44(1), paragraph 1448, page 884.

“Secondly, the policy implication of holding that INEC is under no obligation to transmit results electronically, signals a return to the era of collation fraud and untrammeled impunity!

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“The better view would have been that even though a duty exists to transmit results electronically, it had not been established by the Petitioners that the failure to do so SUBSTANTIALLY affected the result of the election in this instance!

“The implication of the judgment on the point, is that all the innovations and checkmates against electoral fraud contained in the 2022 Electoral Act have been capriciously cast into the dustbin of history!  It is on these bases therefore that I view the judgment as unphilosophical.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party (LP) has rejected the judgment.

Obiora Ifoh, national publicity secretary of the LP, said in a statement that justice was not served in the judgment, adding that it did not reflect the law and desires of the people.

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“The Labour Party watched with dismay and trepidation the dismissal of petitions by the five-man panel of the Presidential Election Petition Court led by Justice Haruna Tsammani today and we reject the outcome of the judgment in its entirety because justice was not served and it did not reflect the law and the desire of the people,” the statement reads.

“Nigerians were witnesses to the electoral robbery that took place on February 25, 2023, which was globally condemned but the Tribunal in its wisdom refused to accept the obvious.

“Details of the party’s position will be presented after consultation with our lawyers after the Certified True Copy of the judgement is made available to us.”

The LP urged all lovers of democracy to remain focused and hopeful, adding that a new Nigeria is possible.

Obi who came third in the election and his party had filed a joint petition in March challenging the outcome of the presidential poll.