Call for speedy determination of election petitions crassly mischievous – Keyamo

The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo (SAN) has said that those calling for quick determination of election petitions before May 29 are “plainly ignorant or crassly mischievous”.

Keyamo stated that 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 Senior Advocate of Nigeria stated this on Sunday in a post via his verified Twitter handle.

The minister explained that 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.

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‘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.”

Some individuals including former Catholic archbishop of Abuja, John Onaiyekan had argued that May 29 swearing-in should be stopped pending the determination of presidential election petitions.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar as well as that of the Labour Party, Peter Obi among others are challenging the victory of President-Elect, Bola Tinubu at the tribunal.