Election Adjudication: Reaction Trail Judgement On Live Broadcast Of Tribunal

 By Awajis George 

Reactions have continued to trail the judgement of the supreme court over the live broadcasting of proceedings of the tribunal filed by  Labour party and Peoples Democratic Party.

The supreme court had ruled against the Live broadcast of the proceedings citing security reasons amongst others.

A  Port Harcourt based lawyer, Barrister Alvin Ofuegbu in a chat with our correspondent in Port Harcourt stated that allowing Live Broadcast of the proceedings may be detrimental to the entire proceedings. 

Barrister Ofuegbu commented that the judges acted on advice given to them by the Department of State Security, DSS.

Barrister Ofuegbu speaking

The Port Harcourt based lawyer explained that a strong evidence is the jurisdiction to winning a case. 

He advised parties to focus on building a strong case and not be distracted with speculations and false grapevines.

In his view, a Human Rights Advocate, Mr. Josiah Egbilika opined that there is a need for all to respect the laws guiding judicial proceedings. 

He noted that although Civil Society Organizations (CSO) are clamouring for the Live Broadcast of the tribunal proceedings, the rights of the judges and the judiciary should not be tempered with

Human Rights Advocate Josiah Egbilika

Mr Egbilika advised CSO to device other means to monitor the proceedings. He suggested that being present to witness the proceedings and also making their reports known to the public are some of the ways the proceedings of the tribunal can be monitored and evaluated.

In a deviant view, a Gender Based Advocate in Rivers State, Miss Queen Agba described the supreme court judgement as shameful. According to her, this is an opportunity for the judiciary to redeem her image in the eyes of the people who now see them as incompetent and corrupt.

Miss Queen Agba Speaking 

Miss Agba regrets that opportunity like this may hardly come and not utilizing it may cause more harm than good.

Meanwhile, the tribunal has given the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party and their candidates three weeks to present  their witnesses respectively, while given the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) 3 days and the All Progressives Congress (APC) 5 days to defend their cases.