THE REVOLUTION AND RESURGENCE OF HOPE, SANITY IN OUR JUDICIARY. By Ayeni Ola Socrates

The survival of any Democratic political system lies in the strength, vitality and active consciousness with inherent sensitive nature and operation of the judiciary .
The judiciary is an independent organ of government that is charged and saddled with the responsibility of interpretation of laws and adjudication in dispute either electoral, civil or criminal as enshrined in the constitution.

The long awaiting epoch of judicial consciousness and activism of our judiciary as the last Hope of the common man, the custodian of the law and the conscience of any Nation is here now!

The verdicts of the election petition Tribunal on the last shamble ,anarchy, chaos and daylight electoral robbery that occurred in RIVERS state last governorship and house of assembly election has Really shown that gone are the days,where electoral rogues, who believes in raping and thwarting the electoral process, will keeps maximizing pleasure in such illegal act, which has in no small measures relegate our Nation to second fiddle, mockery and a Democratic infant in comity of nations, who cannot imbibe the ethos,norms and values of standard international electoral practices as obtained in industrialized democracies, despite the uninterrupted 16 years of democracy practice.

The precedent being set by the election petition Tribunal that sat on the electoral litigation on Rivers state governorship and house of assembly is a laudable one, which will stand the ideal test of time and will also go long way in sanitizing of our judicial system and brings out the judicial activism, we all have been yearning for,for So long, in re-positioning of our dear state and Democratic practice to the standard obtained in an ideal Democratic climes.

I recalled vividly, that during the last Governorship election in Rivers state, the immediate former Governor now appeared but yet to be confirmed minister , Rotimi Amaechi during the election, before casting his vote, asked the electoral presiding officer in his pooling Booth to show him the EC8 form for that pooling unit,which the presiding officer was unable to produced, immediately, the Governor exposed the anomalies he discovered in the process to the world and he was being criticized by the then Ruling party, that he lacks the right to have condemned the process, that he should allow the body charged with the responsibility to do so , in which the outcome of the election petition Tribunal has finally validate now.

The regularities in the pattern at which the election petitions Tribunal nullified the governorship and assembly elections, shows that the processes was marred with high level of irregularities, which was also in conformity with the codified report of election observers both locally and internationally on the processes in the state .

I strongly believes that, there is no amount of influence or interference the Executive arm at the federal level can exercise on the judiciary cum election petition Tribunal that could make them relegate themselves to be a mere stooge of the Executive and nullified twenty house of assembly election in a state, if truly the process of the election was free and fair in conformity to the electoral act.

Let all walling Wailers keep mute as the independent and sanity of the judiciary is well protected.
To crown it all,the supreme court has thrown out wike petition challenging the jurisdiction of Rivers state election petition Tribunal ,which was moved to Abuja for maximum security and protection of the electoral panels to be well guarantee.