Barrister Maxwell Opara, a Nigerian lawyer, gave reason why he was surprised when the court said they don’t have right, policy direction to grant live broadcast as requested by Labour Party and the PDP.
Barrister Maxwell revealed this in an interview with AIT during the Democracy program when he was asked to air his view on presidential election tribunal court ruling on live broadcast of the proceedings.
Maxwell Okpara began by saying that people can check online and see different reactions to the court ruling that they can’t allow the proceedings to be live broadcasted. However, he said the constitution gave the court unlimited power on how to run their court proceedings.
“The panel said they don’t have regulatory framework or policy direction permitting them to grant the live broadcast. I was surprised.”
He said he was aback because section 6 (6) (b) of 1999 constitution, have empowered the court to answer any questions as regarding court proceeding.
“That’s why most of the time when you are bringing application to court, if you watch the rule of that court, the court doesn’t make any provision there”
He said the court in this case as exercises its power the way they feel.
He said to him even the letter they wrote to CJN to be permitted for live broadcast is uncalled for because the constitution says “everything must be public”
