Olisa Agbakoba a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN says it’s a futile exercise to try to stop the inauguration of the President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Tinubu is set to be sworn in on May 29 to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari, but some Nigerians said the inauguration should be moved forward until the court makes a decision on whether he actually won the February 25 presidential election.
Just last week, some residents of Abuja, the nation’s capital filed a suit in the court praying the court to determine whether Tinubu can be sworn in without winning 25 percent of votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory.
The All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate won the majority of votes in the presidential election but failed to win 25 percent of the votes in FCT.
This is one of the issues raised by the losers of the election, Atiku Abubakar of the PDP and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP, in their petitions before the election petition tribunal.
In spite of the challenge facing Tinubu’s victory, Agbakoba, a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, said the swearing-in should go ahead because there is no constitutional provision saying otherwise.
In a statement, he signed on Monday Agbakoba said the swearing-in should go ahead while the court determines whether Tinubu’s won the election or not.
According to the top lawyer, “It is important to state that the inauguration of Mr Bola Tinubu on 29 May 2023 is bound to happen under our constitutional process.
“While the election tribunal deals with the petitions there is no constitutional process to delay the inauguration on 29 May. We need to obey the rule of constitutionalism.”
On Monday, the Inspector General of Police, Alkali Baba Ahmed warned those planning to scuttle the transition of government on May 29 to desist from the act as the police is prepared to deal with troublemakers.
The Nigerian Army also said last week that it will not allow anyone to scuttle the country’s democratic process.
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