By Ngozi Nwankwo
Centre for Law Enforcement Education, CLEEN, has on Wednesday presented a comprehensive policy brief on the outcomes of the election petition tribunals in the 2023 general elections in Nigeria.
The document gave an in-depth analysis of the legal processes, challenges and implications that emerged during the resolution of electoral disputes.
In his welcome Remarks, the Executive director CLEEN Foundation, Mr. Gad Peter said the policy brief was a reflection of their commitment to fostering a fair, credible, and transparent electoral process.
While saying that the most challenging part of the electoral process in the 2023 election was the judiciary, Peters said the insights gathered from the examination of the tribunals would strengthen the system and impact on the electoral landscape.
In his presentation of the findings from the 2023 election tribunal observation, Director of Program CLEEN Foundation, Mr. Salaudeen Hashim said the overall aim was to uphold the principles of transparency, legitimacy, accountability, and fairness in the election petition tribunal in Nigeria.
He said CLEEN adopted a triangulation method in gathering its data. This method, according to Hashim is to ensure that both primary and secondary information was gathered, crosschecked for accuracy and quality in the process of the tribunal observation process.
The director explained that the foundation recruited and trained 38 election petition observers across 18 states and Federal Capital Territory and equipped them with a standard checklist scripted in CLEEN Mobile App that could transmit data to the central database after submission of the tribunal observation for the day.
Revealing the findings in the 2023 election, the document disclosed various levels of transparency across different states.
The document also showed there were instances where access to information was restricted, raising concerns about the openness of the process.
It also showed there were bureaucratic processes that inhibited the trained observers from accessing the relevant public documents at the election petition tribunals in the states covered. “The Tribunal secretaries referred the trained observers to the Appeal court in Abuja for permission to grant their request for statistics of the election petitions filled at the tribunals.
According to the policy brief, observers reported instances where the tribunals demonstrated independence and adherence to due process, but adding that concerns were raised about allegations of bias in certain cases, emphasizing the importance of reinforcing the impartiality of judicial processes.
The policy brief, however, recommended that the Legislature should ensure that laws bothering on timing for conclusion appeal to electoral disputes.
The media should create awareness and sensitize the general public on laws and policies on election dispute adjudication. “It should, as the fourth estate of the realm, hold judicial officers accountable for their actions in election dispute adjudication,” it said.