APGA candidate faults judgment period

The Abia State All Progressives Grand Alliance governorship candidate in the April election, Chief Reagan Ufomba, on Thursday called on the Supreme Court to reverse its ruling on the mandatory 60-day judgment delivery period for election cases.Ufomba, in a statement in Abuja, said the apex courts ruling in the suit between the Congress for Progressive Change and the Peoples Democratic Party amounted to handing judges at the election petitions tribunals a blank cheque.He said, It is a travesty of justice to sacrifice real intentions of litigants and litigations on the altar of speed and expediency that do not and cannot in anyway guarantee justice and judicial redress. That section of the Electoral Act needs further interpretation.The maxim that says it is better for 99 guilty persons to be set free than one innocent person to suffer injustice remains the grundnorm.He added, How can the burden of court, including judicial administration and quick dispensation of justice, as well as liabilities arising therefrom be placed on litigants'What the judgment means is that a tribunal judge can go on sick leave, go on frolic and return after 60days to give a no-judgment verdict on tribunal cases, hiding under section 12 Sub-section 5 of the Electoral Act.
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