Election petitions should end before swearing in, Okutepa says

Accuses incumbents of spending state funds for personal litigation

ASENIOR Advocate of Nigeria ( SAN), Jibril Okutepa, has canvassed a situation where every postelectoral legal matter is concluded before Nigerian political office holders are sworn in.

His reason is based on the perception that swearing them into office while legal actions against them persist allows them to use public funds to obtain victory at the expense of their opponents.

Okutepa, who was relaying his ugly experience during the post- election litigations emanating from 2023 general elections, insisted that the aspect of the country’s law should be tinkered with immediately so that no person should be allowed to assume office in Nigeria until the election petitions are decided.

According to him, the moment a governor or President assumes power, and given that the judiciary has been reduced to a weeping houseboy in the hands of the executive and the legislator, there are tendencies for judgments to remain subject of controversy and criticism.

“If we are serious, then, we should decide election petitions and regulate transparency. How many of those who are declared winners have hired lawyers from their pockets? It is only the “losers” that have been put in political and electoral penury, that are made to face the unhygienic grounds in filing and fighting electoral petitions,” he stressed.

Okutepa also faulted his colleagues who are used in carrying out unethical practices, warning that they should be careful not to destroy their common legacy.

Answering questions on the role of senior lawyers in the perceived judicial corruption, he said: “I don’t know what their roles are because like I said and have written, the legal profession, comprising the bar and the bench, senior and junior lawyers, should be careful not to destroy itself by itself. “When you go to a tribunal and see some processes filed by senior lawyers, even installment processes filed to defeat viable petitions, you will begin to wonder whether those senior lawyers who claim to be doing their jobs are actually doing so.

“When you look at what goes on in other climes where lawyers adhere to the ethics of the profession, and are seen as the leaders of the society, you will be worried about the Nigerian situation.

“Some processes filed by senior lawyers in some cases in our courts would have led to an automatic withdrawal of licenses of those lawyers. But who will bell the cat in Nigeria? Here, wrongful conduct appears to be the licence.”

He hinted that there are some senior lawyers, who specialised in stalling proceedings and people who have cases look for them for that purpose.

“Look at what happened to Donald Trump’s lawyers in America, will that happen in Nigeria? If Trump was a Nigerian President, he would have won his second term in office, but have you ever seen any President of Nigeria right from the time we started democracy in 1979 till 1999 being removed from office?” He queried.