Naira Redesign:  Judiciary Commended for Overruling Buhari

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

A former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timi Frank, has commended the Supreme Court for overriding President Muhammadu Buhari on the legality and validity of the old Naira notes of N200, N500 and N1,000.

Frank in a statement issued yesterday  also called on the judiciary to leverage the same patriotic courage it demonstrated in reversing the ban on old Naira notes in dispensing justice in several election petition cases to be brought before it soon.

He said Nigerians were heartbroken and frustrated because the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) raped and murdered democracy in the country on February 25, 2023.

He urged the judiciary to note that even the INEC National Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, admitted that issues of logistics, election technology (BVAS), the behaviour of some election personnel at different levels, marred the presidential and national assembly elections.

Frank insisted that this was a clear indication that INEC failed abysmally  in its duty to deliver credible elections or use the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) to conduct the elections in line with its guidelines.

He said: “This is the justice that Nigerians are asking for. INEC has failed and we urge the judiciary to hold that INEC violated its own guidelines and did not comply with the Electoral Act and its guidelines.”

He insisted that the present case was unique in the sense that Nigerians have continued to cry out that their votes have been stolen and their mandate denied.

Frank noted that both international and local observers had agreed with them that the election was marred by massive irregularities and rigging, adding that they equally berated and scored INEC low for not adhering to the law and its own guidelines.

He said: “It is equally obvious that INEC failed to follow its guidelines and promise to transmit election results from the polling units to its server in real time. All over Nigeria, evidence abound in video, audio and hard copy formats showing how the results of the elections were falsified to favour the ruling APC.

He, therefore, called on the judiciary, especially the Supreme Court to rise up from its ashes of partisanship and servile disposition to the APC and seize the opportunity by the present political conundrum to reset its image and do the needful courageously.

Frank added: “We believe that Nigerian Judges and Justices of the Appeal and Supreme Courts were in this country when the presidential and national assembly election were conducted.

“Besides, we believe that Nigerian Judges and Justices read newspapers and listen to news on radio and television, therefore, they cannot claim to be unaware of Electoral heist that was perpetrated during the last election.

“It now behooves on the judiciary to review the facts that would be presented before them by aggrieved political parties, sift them to determine the truth and rule to uphold Justice, stability, peace and democracy in the country.”