Human Rights Activist and Barrister, Chukwudi Ezeobika, has slammed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), for failing to exercise due diligence in conducting a proper investigation into the certificates submitted to it.

The Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, said the Electoral body should take a large portion of the blame for the embarrassing situation Nigeria now finds itself because of the controversy over President Bola Tinubu’s certificates.

Ezeobika stated this in a statement, in Abuja, on Sunday.

The legal practitioner said, “Having received huge budgets (which amounts to billions of Nigerian naira) both from the Nigerian government and international donors, it remains inconceivable how the INEC Chairman, Prof. Yakubu Mahmood, could betray the very trust bestowed upon him by Nigerians to give them a brighter future through the conduct of a free, fair and credible election.

“The decision by Bola Ahmed Tinubu to aspire to become a President in Nigeria, knowing fully well the extent of his dishonesty is troubling.

“These (Chicago State University) certificates (Released by an Order of a United States of America Court in Chicago , Illinois), were consciously and duly deposed to by President Bola Tinubu, before a Commissioner for Oaths and were later submitted to INEC in the relevant forms prior to the general elections.

Nigerians have, to a great extent, lost hope and confidence in the Nigerian electoral system as well as the judiciary as justice has consistently been sacrificed on the alter of technicalities and or procedures.

“The relevance and morality of laws enacted by the National Assembly and judgements delivered by the Courts respectively, have become not only alien but at variance with the wishes, desires and aspirations of the Nigerian people especially her teeming youths.

“The Judiciary in any democracy remains the last hope of the common man and when the integrity of any Judicial system is in question and or undermined, then the entire superstructure, including the continued existence of such society is in ruins.

“The time for the Nigerian Judiciary to redeem its integrity and image is now and the future of the Nigerian State will ultimately be shaped by the actions and or inactions of persons appointed to admister justice in our Courts,” he added.