The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Joash Amupitan, has said the outcome of elections should no longer be determined by the court of law.
The electoral body chief stressed that elections must be won at the polling units. He made this comment at the 56th Annual National Conference of the Nigerian Association of Law Teachers, NALT, held at the University of Abuja on Monday.
Amupitan vowed to curb the rising tide of pre-election litigations “that have long burdened Nigeria’s electoral process”.
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He also charged political parties to ensure lasting reforms.
He said: “If political parties obey their constitutions, respect the Electoral Act, and align with the Nigerian Constitution, the avalanche of pre-election cases will collapse.”
The INEC Chairman emphasised that his goal is to make the law “an instrument of change, not chaos.”
“My desire is that when we get the law right, even the losers will be the first to congratulate the winner. That is when our democracy can be said to have matured,” he noted.
Amupitan urged the National Assembly to ensure stronger legislation that would strengthen electoral laws and bring about transparency.
“We cannot continue to allow the courts to determine our elections. Elections must be won at the polling units, not in the courtroom,” he added.
In February 2023, the then INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, told aggrieved opposition parties to “go to court,” if they are not satisfied with the election results.
This statement was issued in response to calls from the Labour Party and the People’s Democratic Party for his resignation and allegations of misconduct during the election process. Yakubu emphasised that the election results indicated a free, fair, and credible process, and that established legal procedures should be followed to address grievances.