Tinubu: “Our Colleagues Are Creating Confusion, Section 285 Prescribes 180 Days For Petition” – Falana

There have been numerous requests for the court to announce the winner of the presidential election before May 29.Femi Falana, a senior attorney in Nigeria, has stated that matters involving election petitions cannot be decided prior to Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s inauguration as president.  

He said that the 180-day waiting period before the Appeal court will convene to hear the election case is stipulated in the statute. According to him, petitions for governorship elections take 10 months, compared to 8 months for presidential election cases. But after all of this, he said, these laws and the constitution might be changed.

I believe some of our colleagues are causing uncertainty, with the utmost respect. Election petitions must be handled by the court of appeals within 180 days, according to Section 285 of the Constitution. If there is an appeal, you have an additional 60 days. In total, eight months are involved. 

You are talking about 10 months when it comes to the petition for the governorship election. A total of 180 days were spent in the tribunal, 60 days in the court of appeal, and 60 days in the Supreme Court. Those who advocate for good technology deployment and use urge us to return to the drawing board.

After that, we can modify the constitution to permit election petitions to be adjudicated in two to three weeks. However, since the petitioners in this case didn’t file their petition until 21 days after the election, you can’t use the terms “7 days” or “14 days.” After this exercise, we can alter the electoral statute and the constitution.