Written by Emmanuel Aziken
Wednesday, 26 March 2008

Justice Uwais who confirmed the receipt of 99 judgments already given by the tribunals in an interview yesterday said the Committee would make a recommendation on the possible use or not of the electoral voting machine (EVM) for future elections.

The Committee, according to him, was set to embark on a national tour across the geo-political zones as a step towards comprehending the views of stakeholders who have not been able to forward memoranda to the Committee.

Already, the Committee has received more than 160 memoranda, Justice Uwais, a former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), told Vanguard yesterday.

“We have asked to be supplied all the judgments delivered by the tribunals and we have already received the first batch,” he said, adding that the Committee had recruited lawyers from the Abuja area whose duty is to analyse the judgments.

“We classify the returns, see the reasons why any petition succeeded, and if it failed, see the reasons why it failed and the nature of the complaint being made by the petitioner,” he said.

“Of the 99 cases that we received, 11 were petitions that had been allowed by the tribunals, 35 are petitions that were dismissed by the tribunals on merit and 25 are petitions that were dismissed on technicalities and there are 27 cases that the tribunals have disposed off,” he said.

The 99 judgments so far received are from Adamawa, Kogi, Katsina, Niger and FCT.
Judgments from other states, he said, were being awaited.

Asked about his assessment of the judgments by the election tribunals and the effect they could bring on the work of the electoral Committee, he said: “It is not a question of our being satisfied, we are not sitting as an Appeal Court, we are not looking for faults.

All we are doing is that for instance, people will complain that elections have been rigged, but in which manner?

“So if you have to find out a way to avoid rigging, you will have to find out the way rigging has been done. Rigging is all embracing, it could mean stuffing of the ballot boxes, it could mean illegal thumbing of the ballot paper, it could mean snatching of the ballot boxes. So we need to have details, we cant work on generalities.

“So when people go to the tribunals, they have to say the manner whatever they are complaining against took place and we are examining that so that we can know the solutions. If it is snatching of the ballot boxes, how can we minimise that or stop that altogether. That is the stage we are in now,” he said

Asked if his Committee would consider recommending the use of the Electoral Voting Machine, he said: “We have some suggestions from the memoranda that have been submitted. It is something that we will certainly consider but we haven’t reached that stage yet.”

Justice Uwais said after some initial hiccups, the Committee had been able to fully establish a functional secretariat and affirmed that the Committee was on course towards meeting its September deadline.