*Expresses worry on judiciary integrity

The Caritas Nigeria, a Foundation of the Catholic Church in Nigeria, has described the 2023 general elections as the worst in Nigeria’s electoral system history.

The Director, Church and Society Department of Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN) who is also the Executive Secretary, Caritas Nigeria, Rev. Fr. Uchechukwu Obodoechina, said this at the public presentation of the 2023 General Election Observation Report.

The foundation was among the groups that observed Nigeria’s last general elections.

Obodoechina noted that the elections witnessed violence, intimidation, disenfranchisement, vote-buying, logistics challenges, and several other things that affected its credibility.

He said there should be punishment for people who compromised the system, resulting in manipulated outcome of the elections, othereise Nigeria should not expect to move forward.

“Obviously, majority of Nigerians are disappointed with the performance of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies despite the huge financial and logistics support it received.

“One of the greatest flaws of the 2023 elections was the inability, unwillingness, and outright refusal of INEC to upload results from Form EC8A to the IReV portal in real-time from the Polling Units as was severally promised before the conduct of the election,” Obodoechina stressed.

He said presently, 10 political parties have instituted 1,341 cases, representing about 90 percent of the 1,490 contested seats; and 346 judges have been engaged in different tribunals, making the 2023 elections the most litigated, contentious, disputed elections in the history of Nigeria’s electoral democracy.

He said, “There are chances that the 1,341 petitions may not be the last since some other cases have not come to the fore. 

“The ball is now before the Courts, and one question that agitates people’s minds is why it should be so. 

“If the Courts should be the avenue of determining who wins elections in Nigeria, then what is the essence of establishing INEC?

“Judiciary is the last hope of the common man and they should live to that expectations. 

“But with the level of corruption, impunity, and failure of consequences in the country, one is skeptical about the type of justice that will be served to the litigants.

“It is our sincere hope that the judiciary should, for once, prove those who do not trust the integrity of the judiciary wrong by serving the type of justice that will right the wrongs done during the polls.”

He also urged INEC to apologize to Nigerians for how its officials dashed the hopes of millions of citizens by conducting an election that fell short of, not only the expectations of most Nigerians but that of the international community, despite the huge funds approved for the exercise.