Afe Babalola, a legal luminary and the founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), has stated that incumbent judges should not preside over election petition courts.
Babalola stated this on Monday during his speech at an event commemorating his 60th call to the bar in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State’s capital.
He stated that judges who preside over election tribunals should be independent from ordinary court judges in order to avoid the halting of cases unrelated to elections, and that tribunal judges should be retired judges and respectable SANs.
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He said: “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.”
According to the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), the judiciary requires a complete makeover, which cannot be accomplished without a new constitution.
He said: “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.”
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Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Kukah, the Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Ogunwusi, former Commonwealth Secretary-General Emeka Anyaoku, and human rights lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) are among those in attendance.
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