He noted there is a section of the law that compelled INEC, even at the risk of sending them to jail to upload the results but to date, the commission has not given Nigerians the results.
Kenneth Okonkwo, spokesperson for the Labour Party/Peter Obi Presidential Campaign Council in the 2023 general elections, has described the judgment delivered by the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) affirming the election of President Bola Tinubu, as a conjecture.
Okonkwo, a lawyer and Nollywood superstar, while featuring on Arise Television’s Newsday programme said that Nigeria’s statutory laws are superior to decided cases by any court in the country, stressing that by the provisions of Nigeria’s statutory laws, the judiciary has no right to make laws but only to interpret laws.
He said that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) saddled with the responsibility of conducting elections in the country merely brought out figures and announced them to the whole world. According to him, to date, results from over 18,000 polling units out of the 176,000 polling units in Nigeria have not been uploaded on the INEC result viewing portal (I-Rev) by the electoral umpire.
He noted there is a section of the law that compelled INEC, even at the risk of sending them to jail to upload the results but to date, the commission has not given Nigerians the results.
Okonkwo said, “Some people are out there being mouthpiece to a failed organisation that could not even live up to the dictate of the law. They just brought up figures and announced them to the whole world. Shamefully, after the burning of such a declaration, 18,088 uploaded results are still blurred, blank and nothing, given by the INEC.
“There is no court judgment that can overrule that because we were given such things from the INEC I-Rev portal.
“So, what we are saying is not about who won or lost. We are saying that election should be free, fair and credible. Credible means believable. Justice should not only be done; it should be seen as done.
“Please if you have seen the results, polling unit by polling unit, either based on original, unmutilated Form EC8A or electronically stored and uploaded results of INEC polling unit by polling unit in 176,000 polling units in Nigeria, please show me and I will be willing to toe your line.
“You can't come to bamboozle Nigerians. A man who failed an election in his own state, failed election in the FCT, couldn't get 25% failed election in the National Chairman's state, failed election in his DG campaign state.
“All those states that are visible, unmanipulable, he failed, and then you are coming to tell me to believe that he won. On what grounds?
“There is an organisation that the Constitution mandated to undertake, organise elections and the law compels them to update these results and show the world that they failed.
“Until today, even after the election, they failed. So, whoever is telling you that anybody won that election is a conjecture. And this is no matter what the court says, because statutory laws in our hierarchy of laws in Nigeria is superior to decided cases.
“And time has come when we should be holding the judiciary accountable to statutory laws. They do not have the right to make laws. The only right they have is to interpret it.
“There is a section of the law that compelled INEC, even at the risk of sending them to jail, and I'm telling you till today, they have not given us the results. If you have seen the results let me know.
“And as long as those results are hidden in shadows, not in substance, whatever is the result? whatever is the declaration by the court, you cannot convince anybody, anywhere in the world.”