A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bode George, has disagreed with those agitating that May 29th inauguration ceremony for the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, should be placed on hold.
“I completely disagree,” George said during an interview as he explained that there is a process that the electoral law approved of and which must be followed.
The PDP chieftain, however, is against the inauguration holding without the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal finalizing its judgement on the ongoing hearing on the outcome of the 2023 presidential elections.
The Editor Nigeria reports that George’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar of the PDP and his Labour Party (LP) counterpart, Peter Obi, are challenging Tinubu’s presidential election victory before the court.
Speaking, however, a few days before the scheduled date for the inauguration of the new administration, George said: “The contest is not complete until you have finished with the judiciary. So, what is that hurry? I also remember that to meet up with the deadline of May 29, the court came up with a concept called frontloading. I’m not a lawyer but they said those of us that are not lawyers are not learned, but I still went to school and did well with my English and literature. They told us that all petitions and all documentation for and against must be frontloaded. In other words, they must be delivered to the court.
“On the very first day they want to start to sit, the judges must have read all those petitions for and against so that they can just come in there to ask for clarifications of those documents that have been read and the defence lawyer can add other important information, if there is, then, they will rise for a minute and re-converge, and the judges will then give the judgment, the written judgment. So, there is still time between now and May 29 to look at the petitions before the Judges to clear their minds. They should not allow the devil to drive us.”
On if the court is not able to give judgment before May 29, George said: “That is a monumental crisis if we don’t meet it. As they are saying that we must inaugurate, look at the temperature of the country right now from the North to the South. It’s graveyard silence. Where is the jubilation? What is that hurry? Whoever becomes the President will spend the next four years in office, so a few more days to allow justice to be dispensed is not too much.”
When asked if what he meant is that if the hearing at the tribunal is not concluded before May 29, there should be no inauguration, the PDP chieftain said: “Yes. They should hold on. My question is: what is the hurry? Buhari also said he would move to Daura or run somewhere.”
He added: “What I am saying from my layman’s view because I’m not a lawyer, is that if there is supposed to be a hand-over on a particular date because the constitution says so, the national leadership, because it has the peace of this nation at heart, can stay on, not because they really want to, but for the peace of the nation. They can make an immediate arrangement for somebody from the National Assembly to be sworn in. At least, there are no questions and queries about their election.”
Responding to The PUNCH during an interview on whether he was suggesting an interim government, George said: “Not necessarily an interim government; somebody can be there. You have the President, the Vice-President and if all these people are not there, you have the Senate President. There are three arms of government: the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. They are independent and if we cannot form a (new) government, what is wrong with them telling the President to stay on for some more days? That can be for peace.”
