Sitting judges should be excluded from election tribunals –Afe Babalola

Founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Aare Afe Babalola, on Monday, said sitting judges should be excluded from presiding over election petitions tribunals.

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) who spoke at ABUAD in Ado-Ekiti on Monday, July 10, 2023 at an event to mark his 60th anniversary at the Bar, said that retired judges and senior lawyers who have intergrity should constitute tribunal judges.

“Our judiciary today needs a total overhaul and you cannot do it without a new constitution. 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,” he said.

With the conduct of the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections as well as the March 18 governorship and state assemblies polls, many aggrieved contestants filed petitions at tribunals sitting in Abuja and in states, challenging the declarations by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).