As Nigeria\u2019s election tribunal is set to begin hearing opposition petitions challenging president-elect Bola Tinubu\u2019s victory on Monday, the Minister of State for Labour and Productivity, Festus Keyamo, has warned that calling for a speedy determination of the petitions before May 29 may be counterproductive.<\/p>\n
The Independent National Electoral Commission had announced Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress party as winner of the election,\u00a0defeating\u00a0his closest rivals Atiku Abubakar of the People\u2019s Democratic Party and Labour Party\u2019s Peter Obi, who alleged fraud and have launched a court challenge.<\/p>\n
The hearing on May 8 will be before Court of Appeal judges, who constitute the tribunal, but Keyamo said on Sunday that those calling for the determination of the Election Petitions before the swearing-in ceremonies on May 29th are either ignorant or mischievous.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose 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,\u201d the Minister said.<\/p>\n
According to him, it is the Petitioners who need more time to prove their cases and not necessarily the defendants and the cases files cannot be determined before May 29th<\/sup>\u00a0because of the time given by the rules for parties to file their Notices of Appeal and exchange their briefs.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is more arduous to prove an Election Petition than to defend it\u2026The rules of Election Petitions do not allow Petitioners to prove their cases piecemeal. A Petitioner cannot pursue a single point up to the Supreme Court and after losing, return to the Tribunal or Court and say he\/she\/it wants to now prove other aspects of the case.<\/p>\n \u201cThe advocates of pre-May 29th determination of the Election Petitions are doing the cases of their Principals (the Petitioners) great harm. They should realise that just as we say \u2018justice delayed is justice denied\u2019, we also say \u2018justice rushed is justice crushed\u2019,\u201d Keyamo said.<\/p>\n Under Nigeria\u2019s electoral laws, the first day of hearing will see candidates\u2019 lawyers agree on the witnesses and evidence to be used during the proceedings.<\/p>\n While Atiku and\u00a0Obi\u00a0are asking the tribunal to invalidate Tinubu\u2019s victory on the ground that the election was fraught with irregularities, among other criticisms, Tinubu, who is set to be sworn in on May 29, says he won \u201cfair and square\u201d and wants the petitions dismissed.<\/p>\n Although there have been numerous legal challenges to the outcome of Nigeria\u2019s presidential elections in the past, none has been successful.<\/p>\n Obi who previously reclaimed his \u201clost mandate\u201d from the 19 April, 2003 governorship election in Anambra State through the court says he is confident the process will yet again deliver him victory.<\/p>\n The NewsG<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As Nigeria\u2019s election tribunal is set to begin hearing opposition petitions challenging president-elect Bola Tinubu\u2019s victory on Monday, the Minister of State for Labour and Productivity, Festus Keyamo, has warned that calling for a speedy determination of the petitions before May 29 may be counterproductive. The Independent National Electoral Commission had announced Tinubu of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t