The Chief Spokesperson for the APC Presidential Campaign and Minister of State, Labour & Employment, Festus Keyamo, SAN, on Sunday, said those agitating for the quick determination of the Election Petitions before Tinubu’s swearing-in ceremony on May 29 are either ignorant or crassly mischievous.
According to the Senior Advocate of Nigeria, they are doing more harm to the cases of the petitioners.
Keyamo made the disclosure in a post on his verified Twitter, noting that, in future, it is possible to amend the laws and rules of the court to accommodate such an idea, but it is clearly impossible under our present circumstances.
He warned that those who think by making these calls they are doing the Petitioners any good, do not realise that they were, in fact, doing great harm to the cases of the Petitioners.
“It is the Petitioners who need more time to prove their cases and not necessarily the defendants,” he said. “That is why 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.”
He said this means 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.”
According to the Senior Advocate, “ 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.”
Keyamo also posits that it is only the Respondent that can raise a preliminary objection that can determine the Petition in limine (that is, at the threshold), pointing out that even then 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’,” he said.
