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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, has said those calling for determination of the presidential election petitions before May 29 are “plainly ignorant or crassly mischievous.”
Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) are challenging the victory of president-elect, Bola Tinubu, at the tribunal.
The retired Catholic Bishop of Abuja Archdiocese, John Onaiyekan, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Archdiocese, Rev Fr Matthew Kukah and several others have urged the judiciary and President Muhammadu Buhari to suspend the May 29 inauguration of Tinubu until the election tribunal has delivered judgement on the petitions brought before it.
But in a tweet on Sunday, Keyamo, who was the APC Presidential Campaign Council spokesman, said the law and rules of the court do not allow for the quick determination of cases.
He 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.”
The minister 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.
“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.
“If these characters say a single point (let’s say the FCT 25 percent storm-in-a-teacup issue) should be set down for determination immediately, would the Petitioners’ lawyers agree to withdraw and abandon all other issues raised in their Petition and proceed only with that issue? Will they take that risk? Ask them privately. They know better. This is because the 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. Even that single point alone CANNOT be determined by the Supreme Court BEFORE MAY 29th because of the time given by the rules for parties to file their Notices of Appeal and exchange their briefs.
“It is indeed only the Respondent that can raise a preliminary objection that can determine the Petition in limine (that is, at the threshold). Even at that, the rules allow the Court/Tribunal to take the objection together with the Petition itself and give one judgment at the end in order to save time.
“So, this is a free advice to the advocates of pre-May 29th determination of the Election Petitions: they are doing the cases of their Principals (the Petitioners) great harm. They should realise that just as we say ‘justice delayed is justice denied’, we also say ‘justice rushed is justice crushed,’” Keyamo wrote.