Apparently worried by the long duration of election petitions, the Action Congress (AC) has reiterated its earlier call on the judiciary to do all within its power to round off all the election petition cases arising from the 2007 general elections as soon as possible, so that the nation can squarely face the daunting challenges of governance.

In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the long-drawn adjudication of the cases had taken its toll on governance, to the detriment of the suffering masses.

"Amid the joy and disappointments of the several rulings of the judiciary on the election petition cases, there is the tendency to forget that it is almost two years since the last elections ended, and that we are less than two years to another general elections.

"There is also the drain on the lean pursues of the states occasioned by the election petition cases, and the distraction to state governors as well as state and federal legislators who are still fighting for the political lives."

What about the aberration of officials who were not really elected but are now exercising the peoples' mandate and disbursing state funds?"The simple implication of this is that little or no governance is going on, at a time when all hands need to be on deck to lift our people from the abyss of poverty.

This should not be allowed to go on indefinitely," AC said.The party said far from blaming the judiciary, the problem was actually caused by the nation's faulty electoral system, exacerbated by a biased and incompetent electoral umpire, as well as political desperation by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)."We believe that the judiciary has availed itself creditably, to a large extent, despite being overwhelmed by a plethora of cases in an unprecedented case of election litigation in the history of Nigeria."However, we urge the judiciary to do more to bring these cases to an end at all levels.

Enough is enough!" it said.The party repeated its call on President Umaru Yar'Adua to urgently set in motion the process for implementing the recommendations of the Electoral Reform Panel, so as to avoid a repeat of the litigations that greeted the 2007 elections and set Nigeria on the path to successful elections."Even if this is the only legacy to be left by the President, he would have written his name in gold if successful elections can be held in Nigeria starting from 2011. That way, the judiciary will be saved the massive pressure of determining who won or did not win elections," AC said.