Excuse Sitting Judges From Election Tribunals – Afe Babalola

BY SEGUN ADEBAYO – Legal Icon and proprietor of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Aare Afe Babalola, says sitting judges must be shielded from presiding over election petitions tribunals as part of the total overhaul required in the country’s judiciary.

Accordingly, the respected Senior lawyer is proposing that election tribunals should be populated by retired judges and respectable Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) to further ease the work of judicial officers in the country.

He said a development where Tribunal Judges are separate from their regular court counterparts would address the current situation of obvious delays in court cases that are not elections matters related.

Speaking at an event to mark his 60th anniversary at the Bar in Ado-Ekiti on Monday, the nonagenarian retired Senior lawyer also canvassed a complete modernisation of Nigeria’s judicial system, saying; “Our judiciary today needs a total overhaul and you cannot do it without a new constitution”.

The 94-year-old legal luminary said; “I have about three cases myself in respect of matters arising from the University. For the past four years, these cases have been on. We have some judges here, the headquarters won’t be able to sit for many months because they are handling what they call election petitions.

“Election petitions should not be handled by sitting judges, they should be decided only by the committee set up consisting of senior advocates and retired judges in that case regular courts would not close down”.

Aare Babalola’s comments come on the heels of many aggrieved contestants filing petitions at various elections tribunals currently sitting across the 36 states of the federation and Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), challenging declarations made by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the February 25 presidential and National Assembly polls as well as the March 18 governorship and state assemblies elections.