John Cardinal Onaiyekan, the Emeritus Catholic Bishop of the Abuja Archdiocese, on Sunday, supported the request for a live broadcast of the trial in Abuja’s Presidential Petitions Court, which is contesting the victory of the Bola Tinubu at the presidential election.
Cardinal Bishop Onaiyekan, in an interview with newsmen after Sunday services to mark the conclusion of the 57th World Communications Week, emphasized the need to stream PEPC sessions live, stating that a court is not “like a secret meeting.”
The Labour Party’s Peter Obi requested a live broadcast of the proceedings, and the PEPC set Monday (today) as the day for its decision.
The Peoples Democratic Party and its presidential nominee, Atiku Abubakar, also make a similar motion to the court.
Mr. Onyekan called on PEPC judges to make fair decisions and allow public trials to give Nigerians more confidence in the judiciary.
According to him,
As journalists, you do your job, cover everything, but try and listen to everybody and relay to the public what is happening because they want to see.
“Isn’t it why it is important the petition before the tribunal, the possibility that the tribunal should be available to all of us to be able follow what is happening?
“For me, this is very important; one thing that Nigerians don’t seem to realise is that when elections are rigged, it is not the contestants or the politicians who are worst hit. Those who are the most impacted is me and you, but as it stands, we don’t even have locus standi in court. We are the ones who should be complaining in court that my votes have been bastardised, but they tell me I cannot go in the court because I did not contest the election.
“If we cannot go and make our case, at least let us see what is happening inside there. We believe that our honourable judges will do their best to make judgments that are correct, they will do what is right. Everybody will see it and it will help to calm nerves, we will know that the right thing has been done, but if they do all these somehow like a secret meeting, even if they did the right thing, we will say who knows what they said.
“So, it is in the interest of the judiciary to allow this thing to be done. All these issues that there are witnesses, whose witness are not meant to be made public, for goodness sake, what are they hiding? If you have anything that people shouldn’t know, you shouldn’t be saying it.
“I am praying that the honourable Justices will find a way even though they have not been doing it before. But they should be ready to do it now. It has reached a stage in Nigeria that we have to be doing things we have not been doing before, because if we have been doing things the way we have been doing it before, then it means we want things to continue the way it has been happening, and we see it has not been helping us, we must boldly take new steps and accept new things”.
cc: Punch Ng
