By Daniel Edu
Pastor Ituah Ighodalo, the senior pastor of Trinity House Church, has expressed his views on the recent verdict of the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT). According to Ighodalo, the judges focused on technicalities rather than the substance of the case.
Despite this outcome, he believes that justice will eventually prevail. Ighodalo insists that Peter Obi, the Labor Party presidential candidate, and Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, have every right to appeal the PEPT verdict. He emphasizes the importance of exhausting all available legal options, even if it may appear to be a costly and time-consuming process.
Ighodalo stated, “When you go to court, there are rules of the court, and that’s one of my challenges with jurisprudence and justice. It’s not just about what is right but also the approach and the technicality. So, the Judges have given their judgment based on technicality, and I think they have largely avoided the substance of the case; it’s convenient for them and the law allows them. So, they have done it and have gotten away with it, but it’s okay, there is always another day.”
He further explained, “Every process must be followed and exhausted according to the laws of the land. They may go on appeal and may find a court that is willing to listen to their case and the substance thereof, and they may not, but nobody will say that they didn’t exercise their rights according to the laws of this country to the fullest.”
“At the very worst, they will ‘waste’ some money, ‘waste’ some time, but they will have reached a process and a nexus, and I will encourage them and anybody else seeking justice to seek such to the end. When they get to the Supreme Court, according to the laws of the land, there is no other court to go to. At that point, they know that they have exhausted all their options, and posterity will not ask them why they stopped midway and did not follow through to the end. There has been precedence before that cases that were lost at the lower court were overturned at the Supreme Court. So, let them exhaust the full process, if they can afford it, both in money and in time,” he concluded.
