‘Conducting The Election Tribunal Before May 29th Is Desirable But A Violation Of Law’ -SAN Aondoakaa
The Former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Michael Aondoakaa has alleged that the calls for the election tribunal cases to be held before the swearing of the President-elect, Bola Tinubu is unconstitutional.
The Senior Advocate speaking in an interview with Arise Tv news stated expressly that holding the presidential election petition before the completion of 180 days is a total violation of the law. If you would recall that the former NBA Chairman, Dr. Olisa Agbakoba had asserted that the Tribunal could finalize the Presidential petitions before May 29th if they intend to do that.
SAN Aondoakaa on the other hand contended that argument as he stated that the judges will have to take their time in evaluating the documents presented before them. He alleged that this is a desirable experiment by his colleague.
He however claimed that this is not in line with the constitution of Nigeria that stipulates that an election tribunal should be held 180 days after a Presidential election. According to him, the petitioners have to give the Judges and the Tribunal the time to operate within the confines of the law.
He said, ”The issue of televising is desirable but proceedings of the court are open and everybody has access to it. The issue is if the Presidential tribunals have the resources and the equipment to start televising now. Now coming to the issue of concluding the election tribunal cases before May 29th, it is desirable but it is a violation of law. If the constitution says that the trial should take place after 180 days, I don’t see any problem in that.”
