As May, 29 draws near, some people have argued that Bola Tinubu should not be sworn in as president until all the court cases challenging his victory in the presidential election are resolved.
However, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mike Ahamba has stated that the issue of whether or not a candidate can be prevented from assuming office if their election is being challenged in court has been before the Supreme Court in a 2003 case involving Muhammadu Buhari and Olusegun Obasanjo.
Ahamba who was part of the legal team that represented Buhari in the case he filed in court challenging Obasanjo's victory in the 2003 presidential election said the apex court ruled that in line with the law, if a person is elected and his or her election is challenged in the court the person shall be sworn in and remain in office until the court determines the case and makes a final decision.
About 49:20 minutes into a video shared on YouTube by AIT News, Ahamba said "I raised this issue in the Buhari versus Obasanjo case in 2003. I said if you have a serious case against somebody he should not be sworn in until he defends himself but the Supreme Court told me that the law says the person declared remains in office. It was Justice Belgore, former Chief Justice of Nigeria who wrote the lead judgment in that case. He said the person declared remains in office and he was right. So all these things people are talking about because of some private interest can not change the provisions of the electoral act which says the person declared remains in office, the person declared for a house remains in the house (sic). So what you can do it to expedite hearing, that is the only way out".
Content created and supplied by: Ultimate_Gist (via Opera News )
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