Olisa Agbakoba, a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, has called on the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal to conclude the petitions regarding the February 25 presidential election before the inauguration of a new president on May 29.

Although the Independent National Electoral Commission declared All Progressives Congress candidate Bola Tinubu the winner, the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi respectively, who came in second and third, rejected the outcome and filed petitions to challenge it.

In a statement released to the media on Monday,

Agbakoba urged the tribunal to adopt procedures used for the speedy conclusion of arbitration matters. He listed three items in the presidential election petition that could be resolved by applying procedural orders and directions, which could peremptorily decide some of the jurisdictional and procedural issues in the petition. These items include the interpretation of Section 134 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, whether securing 25% of votes in Federal Capital Territory Abuja is compulsory to become President, whether a candidate is permitted to stand for presidential or vice-presidential election when he is at the same time a senatorial candidate, and issues relating to the qualification of candidates to stand for presidential election. Agbakoba believes that the petitions can be resolved within seven days between the tribunal and Supreme Court to cool the temperature on the issue of an interim government.