These crooks are all becoming more brazen by the day . I have always insisted that Jonathan and his PDP buddies are tacit election riggers. While justice Uwais, Femi falana , Wole Soyinka and most sensible Nigerians can for the outright ban and punishment of election riggers Jonathan works for their relection (Oni and Uduaghan) and now Mark and Bankole want to give PDP election riggers 'carte blanch' to behave as badly as possible comfortable in the knowledge that they will , at worst , face a rerun they will "win again and again" rather than face removal or stern punishment,

http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=40371:new-electoral-act-stops-removal-of-govs-by-courts-say-mark-bankole&catid=1:national&Itemid=559

“We have passed a law, and in the new Electoral Act, the court has no power to send a sitting governor away because of irregularities in an election that brought him to office. The worst that could happen is a rerun. And PDP will win again and again.”

New Electoral Act stops removal of govs by courts, say Mark, Bankole .

Thursday, 03 March 2011 00:00 From Muyiwa Adeyemi (Ado-Ekiti), Mohammed Abubakar and Tunji Omofoye (Osogbo) News - National   

THE controversy over the provisions of the new Electoral Act, particularly the power the court and the election tribunal should wield over elections, again, came to the fore yesterday.

While the old electoral law grants the two judicial bodies power to nullify election and give the mandate to the authentic winner, the leadership of the National Assembly yesterday disclosed that courts and tribunals in the country have been stripped of the power by the amended Electoral Act.

Senate President, David Mark and the Speaker of the House of Representatives Dimeji Bankole made the revelation at different fora in the country.

While speaking at the opening of a two-day National Summit on Free and Fair Elections organised by The Nation in collaboration with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja, Mark said the judiciary should rise to the challenge of dispensing with electoral cases before a supposed winner is declared. This, he said, would prevent a situation whereby almost three months into a four-year tenure, somebody is still losing his seat.

According to him, it was in response to this kind of anomaly that the National Assembly decided to amend the Electoral Act to remove the power of the court to declare a winner because, “we believe that for someone to be declared a winner of an election, he/she must seek the mandate of the people, unlike what we had before when people who did not participate in elections got into office through the court pronouncement. It would no longer work.”

Mark’s revelation was corroborated by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole who spoke at the PDP presidential rally in Akure, the Ondo State capital. Bankole told the crowd of PDP members that attended the rally that a new law has been passed by the National Assembly “that has made what happened in Ondo State after the last election, impossibility again in Nigeria.”

“We have passed a law, and in the new Electoral Act, the court has no power to send a sitting governor away because of irregularities in an election that brought him to office. The worst that could happen is a rerun. And PDP will win again and again.”

hmmmmm - further evidence of the cesspit called Nigeria. This law must have been secretly passed without any public awareness.

blacksta:

hmmmmm - further evidence of the cesspit called Nigeria. This law must have been secretly passed without any public awareness.

Laws that further their selfish interests are always passed quickly without the slightest acrimony.

It is unfortunate that we do not give much focus to the election of our senators and representatives. These goons are a big part of the Nigerian problem and by gosh, for Nigeria to change, the Senate and house needs to be cleansed come april.

this is a bad habit.
Let's publicised it if the press is compromised.

Kobojunkie:

It is unfortunate that we do not give much focus to the election of our senators and representatives. These goons are a big part of the Nigerian problem and by gosh, for Nigeria to change, the Senate and house needs to be cleansed come april.

Well Said!

Like Abu Ibrahim said earlier in the week;

“We are also thinking of parliamentary alliance. The presidency is important, but there are other areas of interest that we cannot foreclose. We have been meeting on how to work hard to ensure that the three parties secure majority in the National Assembly and check the tyranny of the PDP.”

We ignore those HOA elections at our own peril. . .

You guys have strong constitution to be worrying about what the baboons in the jungle are up to.

I've always said that a selfish man like GEJ is ready to torpedo the future of Nigeria for his own political expediency.

What act could me more callous and selfish than this. This is even more selfish than returning all sitting Governors just so they can deliver him delegates votes. This man is ready to eviscerate any democratic law to suit his short term aims, and damn the consequences.

wonderful

Ibime:

I've always said that a selfish man like GEJ is ready to torpedo the future of Nigeria for his own political expediency.
What act could me more callous and selfish than this. This is even more selfish than returning all sitting Governors just so they can deliver him delegates votes. This man is ready to eviscerate any democratic law to suit his short term aims, and damn the consequences.

Indeed. Really tragic that this is the man some think will take Nigeria forward . Undemocratic antics and blatantly self-serving actions from political leaders is now at a high in Nigeria under GEJ.

This is really sad, Nigeria the beautiful and well endowed gang raped by heartless and beastly creatures, very very bad1

PDP has to go , . . that is just it.

Kobojunkie:

PDP has to go , . . that is just it.

What is very worrying is the "free for all" and "devil may care " behaviour we are seeing from Politicians under the GEJ Government. He is too weak to set strong standards as to what will simply not be condoned . The PDP has become grossly uncontrollable under GEJ because , as I have always argued, he is someone no one respects . Most do not feel he deserves to be President but they understand that under him they will thrive and have a 'free hand' to do as they please. for that reason they tolerate him and "endorse" his ambition.

When OGD is not setting bad precedences of legislative gangsterism he is conducting a parallel election with OBJ for the same position of the PDP in the same State !!!! we all know , undoubtedly, that automatic banning and sanctioning of election riggers is the way to go , for a nation virtually destroyed by election rigging, yet these clowns want to drag the Country back so brazenly with the tacit support of "Mr. Fresh air"  we all saw working to support the relection efforts of election riggers  . We can all see that , dangerously, Jonathan  is already losing control with how the political class are doing as they please all over the land in testimony to our weak Presidency. Security is now very poor while profligacy, waste , stagnation , depressing news and a lack of direction is rampantly pervasive . Even with all this Jonathan and his 'pals' never stop thinking of new ways to further enslave Nigerians for their continued 'awoof chopulation'.

I blame the weak opposition, they are the one going to leave us at the mercy of PDP touts, FFS why cant ACN & CPC make it work, Also I think we should put more effort in getting credible position in both houses, hopefully next April we have more opposition members in the houses and such nonsense would be revisited and no longer allowed.