End All Election Drama Before May 29 — Agbakoba Pleads

EKO HOT BLOG reports that Dr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, has called on the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal to resolve the petitions filed by the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) challenging the outcome of the February 25 presidential election before the inauguration of a new president on May 29.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, as the winner of the poll.

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Agbakoba made this call in a statement he personally signed on Monday, where he also urged the tribunal to adopt the procedures used for the speedy conclusion of arbitration matters in its approach to the cases. He listed three issues in the presidential election petition that can be resolved using the procedures he recommended.

The first issue he addressed was the interpretation of Section 134 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which stipulates whether securing 25 per cent of votes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, is compulsory to be President.

Atiku Abubakar, the PDP presidential candidate, and Peter Obi, the LP presidential candidate, who came second and third respectively, had rejected the outcome of the election and filed petitions at the tribunal to challenge it.

Agbakoba is not the first to call for a speedy resolution of the petitions. The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) had also urged the tribunal to conclude the hearing of the petitions within 180 days as provided by law.

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The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal, headed by Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, had earlier fixed May 15 for the hearing of the petitions.