GOVERNORSHIP candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), in the just concluded election Hamidu Suleiman told The Guardian that the party does not plan to challenge the elections, even as it is hopeful that the tribunals will be objective.He said; Our expectation is high and we are hoping that what we experienced here from the judges in 2007 would not repeat itself.He accused the tribunal judges assigned to the state in 2007 of taking side, even when the evidence before them showed that there were pockets of irregularities in the elections.He said the party would not bother to file any petition in spite of its woeful outing in the elections because the people have lost confidence in the judiciary where judges dance to the tunes of parties in power.Like the ANPP, the governorship candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) Engineer Ahmed G.Yusuf, has as well resolved to bow out of the game by not petitioning the tribunal.In spite of the partys relatively brilliant performance, Yusufs decision not to engage the ruling party in a legal tussle was hinged on the perception that tribunals judges dont know how elections are riggedYusuf, from indications has no confidence in the tribunals following his experience in the 2007 elections, which he contested on the platform of the then Action Congress (AC) as governorship candidate.Despite that, Yusuf beckons the judges that would be posted to the state to tread the path of righteousness, by holding tenaciously to the ethics of the legal profession and refusing to be bought over.Similarly, the leadership of the state chapter of the Conference for Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) said the expectation of the people is that the tribunals should be fairChairman of the conference, DabIya Gambo, said for the judiciary to continue to remain the last hope of the common man, the members of the election tribunal posted to the state must strive to be above board.He advised the judges to desist from seeing the national assignment as opportunity to enrich themselves, but as a privilege to serve the country because it is not all their colleagues that are appointed to serve in the tribunal.Like good citizens, we in the CNPP, especially those of us from the opposition political parties, would expect nothing more than accurate justice from them. They must refuse to be bought over by the ruling party.Even though they performed well in some states in 2007, what they did here (Taraba) was rubbish, take the case of AC and PDP, for instance. But we all saw what happened at the eleventh hour when the judges suddenly turned the case in favour of the ruling party.According to him, the attitude of the judges posted to the state in 2007 discouraged most of the aggrieved aspirants in seeking redress in the current exercise.Beckoning on the people not to lose hope, he said competent hands, not only judges who have the fear of God, but those willing to do the right thing at the right time should be sent to the state.Our expectation is for these people to do what is right because all eyes are on our country. It is high time for the judiciary to flush the bad eggs among them because we dont want a repeat of what we suffered in 2007.In 2007, it was glaring that the judicial pendulum was swinging towards the direction of one of the political parties that was robbed in that election, but to the utmost surprise of Tarabans, the whole ruling took different dimensions over night.
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