Recently, I have been getting calls from journalists and reporters requesting me to give them a summarized update on the ongoing INEC/ presidential election saga, they always end it by asking me what I think could likely be the outcome of the case in the election petition tribunal and I will sincerely answer them that I do not know. Honestly speaking, I do not and cannot even as a lawyer predict the outcome of any case in court not to talk of a case as complex as an election petition.
Not just me, no lawyer can truly predict the outcome of any case; even a case you think is a sure banker you may end up losing it on technicalities ground or due to the mischievousness of some judges, if you doubt me ask the lawyers of Bashir Machina in the case of Machina v. Ahmad Lawan/Apc. I can tell you that till the final judgment was delivered, they wouldn’t have believed that they would lose that case.
When a case goes to court, the ball is squarely in the court of the judges; they have both the yam and the knives and they are at the liberty to cut the yam however they like without owing anyone an explanation. Some judges before a case come before them already have their biases and sentiments against a party in the suit and it will take only Jesus Christ to change the mind of the judge against you even if you are the aggrieved party.
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To a judge, the law is not what the statute book says it is the law, the law is what the judges say it’s the law in the courtrooms. A judge can even depart fundamentally from what a statute book postulated while interpreting the law. The judges have the power to not just administer the law but to make laws and correct laws as written in statute books as well; they are that powerful. A certain jurisprudential definition of law even holds that “the law is what the court says it is the law”.
So going back to what will likely be the outcome of this ongoing case in the election tribunal, honestly, even a mind reader or the greatest seer cannot tell.
The APC/Tinubu camp, the LP/Obi camp and the PDP/Atiku camp have all armed themselves with at least 10 senior advocates of Nigeria each. Each of the camps has retained the services of the best of the best lawyers Nigeria have ever produced and I can tell you that although each of them could be assuring their employers how they will win the case and the legal tactics and manoeuvring they will use to win the case for their employers, deep down they know that it is the court that determines who wins the case unless any of them have gone through the back door to induce a judge to deliver judgement in their favour.
So at this point in the case that the candidates are in court contesting who truly won the presidential election, even if there is a sea of evidence that corroborates the fact that a particular candidate won, the court can decide to close its eyes to that evidence and apply technicalities in determining a winner.
Let’s all watch and see how it unfolds and hope that the best guy wins. I do not care what your lawyers have told you, none of them truly knows the outcome of the case unless the person has paid a judge to influence the outcome of the case.