Redeem Image  While Handling Election Petitions, National Youth Alliance Tells Judiciary 

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*Says there is near nationwide rejection of  President-Elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu

*Insists absence of jubilation when INEC declared winner, speaks volumes

*Calls on international community to beam searchlight on Nigeria 

*Urges Nigerians to remain peaceful,  law abiding 

By; JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON

A group, the National Youth Alliance has while reflecting on the outcome of the 2023 general elections and how Nigerians perceive the outcome nationally, tasked the judiciary to redeem its image through the judgments it would be passing 

This was expressed by the group in a statement signed by its National Spokesperson,    Obande Obande, dated Sunday April 9, 2023, made available to journalists in Kaduna.

“Having set the judiciary process in motion, the National Youth Alliance wishes to call on the leadership of the judiciary not to let Nigerians down. In recent years, the perception of the judiciary has suffered so much negativity, and we expect the judiciary to take the opportunity of this round of election petitions to redeem itself in the eye of the public.

“Recent judgments of the Court touching on election  cases have been anything but complimentary and so, Nigerians have the justification to be apprehensive about the commitment of the Nigerian Judiciary to the ethos of substantial justice.  

“But we also acknowledge that the judiciary has in the past risen to its full stature as the bulwark of the Civil Liberties of the oppressed and the last hope of the common man. Millions of Nigerians await to see how the judiciary conducts itself this time,” the group said. 

They said that it has become imperative to communicate with the press and draw the attention of the Nigerian people and the global community at large on  the subject of the 2023 general election, particularly with respect to the issues that have occupied the polity since the announcement of the result of the botched polls. 

“You will of course acknowledge the near nationwide rejection of the President-Elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu since he was announced as the purported winner of the election by the integrity-deficit Independent  National Electoral Commission. Day by day, different groups of Nigerians have taken to the streets of the Federal Capital Territory and other parts of the country to drive home their sentiment that the outcome of the presidential election was not a reflection of the popular will of the Nigerian people. 

“We wish to note with great concern that this is an ugly precedent in our nascent democracy. The practice used to be one of widespread jubilation in the event of announcement of a new leader; but with the last election, the nation has merely endured the peace of the graveyard on the back of an unprecedented electoral heist. Indeed, if there was any doubt as to the manner in which the last general election was conducted, events of the last few weeks should have laid it to rest, that our country stands at the threshold of a crisis of leadership legitimacy as not a few persons have openly declared the withdrawal of their allegiance to the Nigerian State under a Bola Ahmed Tinubu Presidency. 

“We, at the National Youth Alliance are gravely disturbed by these turn of events, and are now constrained to reiterate our earlier demands as follows:

“We have noted that all the aggrieved parties have conducted themselves in a decent manner by submitting to the judiciary, the singular institutional organ for resolution of disputes in any democracy. The National Youth Alliance wishes to commend all the aggrieved candidates for this show of statesmanship,” they said.

The group pointed out that in today’s globalized world, they acknowledge the role of the international community in shaping the affairs of other nations, particularly those where the democratic culture is threatened. 

“It is in this regard that the National Youth Alliance reiterates its call to the international community to beam its searchlight on Nigeria; particularly all the stakeholders and institutions whose role would have a direct bearing in the determination of the cases that have justiably arisen out of the 2023 presidential. Where any act of compromise or subverting of the Judicial process is disclosed, we call on the global community and our international development partners not to withhold its punitive sanctions over such conduct,” they demanded.

The  National Youth Alliance urged Nigerians to remain peaceful and law abiding and at the same time, be assured that the mandate of the people which was stolen will be reclaimed in the fullness of time. 

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