The Stakes for the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal is very high as it has a lot of things riding on it but not a sensational matter like some sections of the media have made it look like.
Legal Practitioner, Omoruyi Edogiawere, disclosed this while speaking on the start of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja that has led to many headlines in the media and has seemed to raise the stakes even higher than it is.
He described the Start of the hearing as nothing spectacular since it is just a pre- hearing sitting which aims to put in place all the house keeping measures that will establish the ground rules for the sitting of the Tribunal.
He said attempts to sensationalise the tribunal sitting in some sections of the media are appaling and should be stopped.
He urged Nigerians to resist the urge to politicise a purely judicial matter and allow the judges to get to work in determining the legality or otherwise of the declarationof the President Elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, of the All Progressive s Congress winner of the February 25 2023 Presidential Election.
He added that the Tribunal should not be used as a platform to put the Judiciary on Trial or over heat the Polity.
He said judges should be allowed to do their work without any sort of pressure from the public or any quarters assuring that they will do their job as allowed by the law.
For his part, Jide Ologu, also a Legal practitioner said the Tribunal has procedures and processes which are normally followed in its day to day operations.
He added that the Petition before the Tribunal as allowed by law has a time limit of 180 days during the Petition phase and 60 days at the appelate level.
Going down memory lane, he traced the history of the Election Petition since 2003 which was by then General Muhammadu Buhari against the declaration of President Olusegun Obasanjo as President Elect with the verdict coming in July of the same year, a situation that did not prevent his swearing in.
He said though the desire of most Nigerians is for any case against the Election of any individual to be cleared up before swearing in of such an individual, the Election Petition Tribunal must and should stand by the Law which sets out the deadline and the time limit for such case to prefer perpetual Court cases and the uncertainty that comes with it.
According to him, the only way this can be addressed is through a rejigging of our laws by the National Assembly the body constitutionally empowered to do so.
He said the provisions of the Law must be adhered to irrespective of the motions of those involved.
On the consequences of holding off the Presidential inauguration until the determination of the Petitions before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, Omoruyi Edogiawere, said that will amount to creating a constitutional crisis where non existed.
He said the issues are there for the National Assembly to address but even if the Laws are amended to allow that things are done differently it will still need to be done in a way that will allow for fair hearing for both the petitioners and the Respondents in the case.
He added that the Tribunal has three options in addresing the issues before it which is to affirm the result of the election, cancel it or declare one of the petitioners winner of the election.
For his part, Jide Ologun, said the issues arround the swearing in of the President Elect or Otherwise is due to the speed of Nigeria’s Judicial processes which has made it a bit difficult to get justice dispensed quickly.
He however added that Nigeria needs to ensure the development of an efficient system that will work well enough for it to ensure that nobody seeks judcial redress after an election process.
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