Archbishop Emeritus of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, has urged the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) to allow live transmission of proceedings to keep Nigerians abreast of happenings at the tribunal.

Onaiyekan revealed this while speaking with journalists during a Mass to mark the 2023 World Communications Day, organized by the Directorate of Social Communications, Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN), with the theme: ‘Speaking the Truth with Love from Your Heart’. He expressed hope that the court would do its best to give true judgments, said: “If they do what is right, everybody will see it. And then, it will help to calm nerves, when we know that the right thing has been done.”He said: “One thing that I think Nigerians do not seem to realize is that when elections are rigged, it is not the contestants or the politicians who are the most hit. Those who have been most impacted and hit are you and I. We, who went and voted. “But as it stands, we do not even have locus standi in court. We are the ones who should be complaining there now, that my vote has been bastardized, and destroyed. They tell me I cannot go to court because I did not contest the election. If we cannot go and make our case, at least, we should be able to see what is happening there.

Onaiyekan added: “All these issues, that there are witnesses whose witness shall not be made public…For goodness sake, what are they hiding? If you have anything that people do not know and should not know, then you should not do it. “We believe that our honorable judges will do their best to make judgments that are correct and true. If they do what is right, everybody will see it. But if they do all these, somehow, in some kind of secret Ogboni meeting, even if they did the right thing and they come out and tell us, we will still say, ‘Who knows what they said?’ “So, I think, and I am praying that the honourable justices will find a way, even though they have not been doing it before, they should be ready to do it now.”