Those calling for speedy determination of election petitions are mischievous-Keyamo
The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Barr. Festus Keyamo says those calling for determination of presidential election petitions before May 29 are “plainly ignorant or crassly mischievous”.
Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) are challenging the victory of Bola Tinubu, president-elect, at the tribunal.
SOLACEBASE recalls that Catholic Archbishop, John Onaiyekan, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olisa Agbakoba and others had called for dispensation of the cases at the presidential tribunal before the swearing in of the president elect, Bola Tinubu.
However, in a tweet on Sunday, Keyamo said the law and rules of the court do not allow for the quick determination of cases.
The minister added that in the future, it might be possible to amend “laws and rules of court to accommodate such an idea, but it is clearly impossible under our present circumstance”.
Read Also: JUST IN: Tribunal fixes date to deliver judgement in Osun governorship election
He said the petitioners are the ones who need more time in court to prove their cases.
“Those who think by such a call they are doing the Petitioners any good, do not realise that they are, in fact doing a great harm to the cases of the petitioners,” he tweeted.
“That is why the petitioners are given 21 days to file and the defendants have 14 days to respond. And the petitioners have a further 7 days to reply, making a total of 30 days as against the 14 days of the Respondents.
‘It follows that in leading evidence in court/Tribunal in support of the petitions, the petitioners would also take more time. It is more arduous to prove an election petition than to defend it.”
THOSE CALLING FOR A QUICK DETERMINATION OF ELECTION PETITIONS BEFORE MAY 29TH UNDER OUR PRESENT LAWS ACTUALLY WANT TO DESTROY THE CASES OF THE PETITIONERS
Those calling for the determination of the Election Petitions BEFORE the swearing-in ceremonies on MAY 29th under our…
— Festus Keyamo, SAN (@fkeyamo) May 7, 2023
The minister said those seeking for speedy determination of the petitions would only cause “great harm” to the petitioners.
Comments are closed.