Some senior lawyers want post-election cases decided before elected officials’ inauguration to avoid conflict of interest, especially from presiding judges.
Given suspicions that usually trail the outcome of such judgements in favour of any incumbent and fears of a clash of interest, lawyers, in conversations with Sunday Vanguard, gave their opinions on the way forward.A legal luminary, Prof Awa Kalu, SAN, said: “Ideally, when you have a contest for the highest political seat in the country, even at the state level, it makes sense to clear every electoral hurdle including litigation before the winner takes the prize.
He said: “The agitation to have an election petition concluded before swearing-in is worth looking into. If that should then be the case, our Electoral Act will have to be amended to have more time for preparation and holding of the elections that will allow the 10-month period for electoral litigation to be concluded before the swearing-in of newly elected officials is done.
His words: “The truth is that the decision of the Supreme Court from the appeals filed by the appellants to the decision of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, PEPT, at the Court of Appeal is apt. It is not surprising that the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal.
“Election petitions should spend six weeks at the tribunal, three weeks at the Court of Appeal and three weeks at the Supreme Court. Every election petition should have been decided on or before May 26. That way we will have a sane situation.”Giving his view, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN, urged the National Assembly, NASS, to amend the Electoral Act 2022 to have transparent elections
On his part, Mr Adebayo Ojo ,SAN, said: “In Kenya where most people refer to, it is only one level and it is at the Supreme Court. They don’t start at the Court of Appeal. In Kenya, they don’t practice adversary proceedings which we do, their system is inquisitorial. I watched the first one where President Uhuru Kenyatta’s election was nullified. That is Raila Odinga and Kenyatta and I also watched the second one.
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