Agbakoba Advises Election Tribunal to Conclude All Petitions Before May 29
Emma Okonji and Nosa Alekhuogie
A former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), has urged the presidential election petition tribunal to conclude all petitions emanating from the February 25 presidential elections before the inauguration of the president-elect on May 29th.
Agbakoba, who spoke yesterday on ARISE NEWS Channel, stressed the need for all the petitions to get accelerated hearing, adding that seven days were a good time frame to get everything sorted.
He said the fact that the constitution prescribed a time frame of about 180 days, doesn’t mean that it must run its course since the policy has been over heated, saying the judicial philosophy of Nigeria was about a hundred years old, and the country itself was not known for speed.
“Ghana finishes its own election petition in thirty days, so why can’t we do the same? My first recommendation will be to ask if the issues presented to the tribunals are amendable to quick resolution?” he noted.
“I’m concerned that the polity is overheated and the way to go is to see if we can get the petition resolved before May 29th. The elections held in February, that’s about four months, what is the difficulty in resolving these cases before the handover?” he said.
Agbakoba, who claimed nothing has been heard from the lawyers since they filed the petitions, urged the judiciary and lawyers in the tribunal to see if the goal could be accomplished, noting that, “the problem is our judicial philosophy and having to run a judicial system that is a hundred years old.”
Fielding questions on the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC)’s role as a respondent and not a neutral witness, he said the electoral body ought not to be a party because then, it would be forced to defend the petition.
“Right now, INEC is a party, it is hiding documents, because it has an interest to say the elections were conducted properly. I hope that the lesson from all these is that the 10th assembly will inaugurate all the legislative recommendations we made in 2007. It is time to demystify elections petition which are not difficult at all,” reiterating that seven days wereenough time to go through the court of appeal at first instance and the supreme court.
“Nigeria needs to cool down, the whole place is over heated because of the petitions, the court needs to be pro active. I must state that since the petition has been filed, not a statement has come from the court and that’s unfortunate, ” Agbakoba noted.
He insisted that he did not agree with what the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, said about the statement the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, made calling it treason.
According to him, the main problem was the fact that the President-elect, Bola Tinubu was likely to be sworn in on May 29, 2023 while the petitions would not have been heard.
“In other to balance out justice, why don’t we try even if we fail? I urge the tribunal and legal team on both sides to do their possible best to push this case to the possible limit, where we can see if there can be a conclusion before the swearing-in,” he added.
