Keyamo said it is sad that some unscrupulous characters are taking advantage of their followers. The Minister of Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, has laughed off suggestions that the May 29, 2023, inauguration of the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, can be legally stopped.
The Minister also described as ridiculous a report that some foreign lawyers have been flown into Nigeria to lead the legal team of the Labour Party and Peter Obi at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) which will commence sitting on Monday, May 8, 2023.
This comes following a claim by a Labour Party governorship aspirant in Imo State, Sam Amadi, who said the May 29 inauguration of the president-elect is not sacrosanct.
Taking to his Twitter page on Thursday, May 4, 2023, Amadi argued that the date of inauguration of a new government is “conventional not constitutional,” proposing that Tinubu should not be sworn in until the court cases challenging his victory are decided.
He further argued that the practice of swearing in governors-elect and a president-elect while they are still defending their declaration in court is a dangerous one that should be scrapped.
Amadi said, “The constitution provides that President and Governors all have 4 years tenures. None should exceed that tenure. So a president or governor came to power on May 29 four years ago, he or she had to vacate office this May 29. That’s sacrosanct. None should stay a day longer.
“But the constitution does not prescribe that a new president must take office on the same May 29. In the popular imagination, it is taken for granted that there would be a valid president to take over on May 29. But where that is not possible due to several reasons, there is a constitutional remedy. D constitution provides that in the event there is no president or vice the senate president should take over. There are many circumstances for that, including impeachment and death of both. It also includes when no valid president is elected to be sworn in.
“When a president has been declared president-elect but his election is being challenged in court, what should happen? Should he or she be sworn in while defending his or her declaration? This has been the practice. But it is a dangerous practice that can lead to grace crises.”
In his reaction posted on his Twitter page on Friday, Keyamo dismissed Amadi’s suggestion and said it’s sad that some unscrupulous characters are taking advantage of their followers.
He also reacted to a rumor that trended on Twitter during the week, alleging that former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has contracted and flown into Nigeria a Russian lawyer to defend Obi’s petition at the tribunal.
Keyamo’s tweet read: “I read somewhere that some supposedly learned fellow is assuring the nattering nitwits that the inauguration of @officialABAT can be legally stopped before May 29th and yet another story that some foreign lawyers have been flown in to achieve that purpose.
“And I read many excited reactions from these nitwits. Then I shook my head and murmured under my breath, ‘Illiteracy is truly a disease and it is sad that some unscrupulous characters are taking advantage of these poor fellows’.”
Pulse reports that the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar and Obi have refused to acknowledge Tinubu’s victory since the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, declared him the winner on March 1.
The duo and their parties accused INEC of manipulating the process to favor the former Lagos State governor by refusing to upload results from polling units on its results viewing portal in real-time as promised before the election.
