Keyamo: Those Calling For Speedy Determination Of Presidential Election Petitions Are Mischievous

Festus Keyamo, minister of state for labour and employment, says those calling for determination of presidential election petitions before May 29 are “plainly ignorant or crassly mischievous”.

Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) are challenging the victory of Bola Tinubu, president-elect, at the tribunal.

In a tweet on Sunday, Keyamo said 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 circumstances”.

The minister said 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.

‘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.”

The minister said those seeking for speedy determination of the petitions would only cause “great harm” to the petitioners.