Archbishop Onaiyekan Objects To Swearing-In Of Tinubu Before Tribunal’s Verdict

Archbishop John Onaiyekan said that president-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu's swearing ceremony before hearing the court's judgment makes no sense.

President-elect Tinubu will be sworn in as president on May 29.

"There are cases in court that have not been disposed of. That is why we are in an anomalous situation," Archbishop Onaiyekan said during an interview on Channels Television on Thursday, Punch reported. "We have a president-elect whose election is being challenged and the court is handling it."

Onaiyekan shared that he is still waiting for the court to announce who won the presidential election. Hence, it doesn't make sense for the 71-year-old former governor of Lagos State "to be swearing in people when they are still in court."

He continued, "I know it has happened with governors but the outcome has really not been the best of all cases. I think we need to review our election process, so we do have a winner who will be sworn in and whom everybody would rally around."

Onaiyekan slammed the court for taking this long to make the decision alongside the whole system of election, noting that it should be properly reviewed.

"It is a pity that it is taking longer for the court to come to its decision," he said. "My problem is that the whole system of our election must be properly reviewed so that it would be easier for winners to emerge according to the wishes of the people."

He explained that it is not right to have a system that gets "constantly contested" and it is important to learn why every election results are being challenged in the court.

Considering the petition against Tinubu, the National Legal Adviser of the APC Ahmad El-Marzuq confirmed that the hearing of the petitions will be held on May 8.

Labour Party (LP)'s presidential candidate, Peter Obi has filed a petition to challenge the All Progressives Congress (APC)'s candidate Tinubu's victory in the presidential elections held on Feb. 25.

Even before challenging the victory officially in March, he said in a press conference that the election was not fair and there were several irregularities.

Tinubu won the election with 8,794,726 votes while Obi came third as he secured 6,101,533 votes. People's Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Atiku Abubakar, who was also running for the presidential election, got 6,984,520 votes.

Obi came under fire last month as leaked audio surfaced on social media, where the presidential candidate allegedly talks about a religious war. However, Obi denied that it is him speaking in the audio, noting that it is fake and doctored.

"I repeatedly stated that no one should vote for me based on Tribe or Religion, but rather on the assessment of Character, Competence, Capacity, Credibility, and Compassion that can be trusted to create a New Nigeria!" he clarified on Twitter.