Political parties must learn to respect rule of law – lawyer
Mr Realwan Okpanachi, a Constitutional Lawyer in Abuja, urges political parties to develop the culture of respecting the rule of law, saying the court is the place to get justice.
The lawyer said this in an interview on Monday in Abuja.
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Okpanachi said the country’s “institutions should not be sacrificed on the altar of political exigencies and interests.’’
He described the Supreme Court as an enviable institution that should be respected by everybody, particularly, political parties which approached the court on daily basis.
The lawyer said the way and manner members of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), reacted to the judgment of the supreme court on Imo Gubernatorial election did not speak well of the party.
He said some members of the PDP, apart from calling for reverse of the judgment, had also called for the resignation of the Justices.
“On this note, I am calling on the PDP, its stakeholders and members to learn from the All Progressives Congress (APC).’’
He said the APC as a party, had suffered many setbacks arising from judgments of court, particularly the Supreme Court.
“In 2015, APC got judgment from the tribunal nullifying the elections of Nyesom Wike of Rivers and the Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment but the Supreme Court upturned it in favour of the PDP.
“Heaven did not fall, APC did not call for protest, and they did not insult the Supreme Court or call on the court’s judges to resign.
“Also, in Akwa Ibom, the tribunal nullified the election of Emmanuel Udom, the Court of Appeal confirmed the judgment of the tribunal, but the Supreme Court set aside the decision of the two courts.
“ Recall, when Ali Modu Sheriff was holding unto the soul of the PDP, the party was almost going into extinction.
“But the Supreme Court came to their rescue by giving judgment that revived the party and gave life to the party to even contest election in 2019,’’ he said.
Okpanachi said that in Rivers, the entire APC was prevented from participating in any election in 2019 by the court, and Supreme Court was the court that nailed the APC finally.
He said in Zamfara, all the elections that held there were taken away from the APC and given to the PDP by the Supreme Court.
“The APC never called for protest, never insulted the justices, they never desecrated the judiciary as an institution,’’ he said.
Okpanachi said that the Supreme Court and the courts in Nigeria had been very magnanimous to the PDP, hence they should show gratitude.
“They should learn from APC because despite all they passed through, they never called out any judge or insulted the Supreme Court.
“The APC instead accepted all these judgments in good fate and in peace,’’ he said.
(NAN)
