By Gabriel Ewepu

THE Director of Contact and Mobilization of the Diaspora, Labour Party, LP, and Founder One Love Foundation, Chief Patrick Eholor, Thursday, asserted that televising the presidential election tribunal will restore confidence of Nigerians in the judiciary.

In a chat with Vanguard, Eholor explained that the televising of the presidential election tribunal will bring about transparency and credibility in the process.

He said: “As a matter of fact it is the only way Nigerians will be satisfied with the tribunal if it is televised because I am sure every Nigerian has an app on their phones and also a television or radio set at home so they can feel like they are physically present and part of the process because not everybody can be in the courtroom when the trial is going on so those who feel that they won or they lost the evidence will speak for itself. Moreover Nigerians will be able to see the pain the INEC chairman has caused Nigerians.”

However, he acknowledged the fact that the issue of televising proceedings at the tribunal is not one of the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022, but said that, “I am not sure if there is any provision, I am not a lawyer but it is common sense if we are going to keep Nigeria together.

“It will definitely make a huge difference, Nigerians are very intelligent, they are not stupid, and they will be able to see the evidence admissible or inadmissible in court.”

He further stated that, “They will be able to see the actual numbers of votes of each candidate that were in INEC’s portal and the INEC chairman will be asked why he did not transmit the presidential results in their portal if he was able to transmit that of the Senate and the House of Representatives. These are all the gray areas that can heal our wounds if answered.

“Definitely I can tell them why it is important the tribunal is televised live to Nigerians and the rest of the world because the country is bleeding, the people who voted for the candidates are unhappy, they want to know the reasons why their votes did not count, and don’t forget that Usman Dan fodio quoted that ‘conscience is an open wound it is only truth that heals it’.

Meanwhile, on the integrity of members of the presidential tribunal and his trust on them to deliver acceptable and credible judgments, he (Eholor) said, “I am not saying I do not trust them but the actions of some judges lately have made the citizens loose hope in the judiciary as they have lately become cash and carry for the highest bidder.

“That is the reason why we want the trial to be open so that the ‘blind’ can see what INEC and the security agents who were supposed to protect the citizens and their votes did to our democracy.”

He however counseled political parties and their chieftains to take it easy as election issues do not warrant ‘war’.

“My advice to politicians like Fani Kayode and Festus Keyamo, MC Oluomo and Bayo Onanuga and many others is that they should take it easy because we are not at war.

“I also advice Dino Melaye, if I have seen anybody from the Labour Party, I would have called them out as well”, he added.