Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), stated on Tuesday that there is no constitutional process that can delay President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s inauguration.

After the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced Tinubu as the winner of the presidential election on February 25, other candidates have filed a number of lawsuits to contest his victory.

According to INEC, Tinubu received 8,794,726 votes, while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flagbearer, Atiku Abubakar, received 6,984,520 votes and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) received 6,101,533 votes.

After that, Tinubu was sued by Atiku and Obi, and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) also filed a lawsuit against the president-elect.

Agbakoba, however, asserted that there is no constitutional procedure to postpone the swearing-in set for May 29 while the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) in Abuja addresses the cases.

Despite the petitions filed against Tinubu at the Tribunal, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria stated that his inauguration is unavoidable under the constitutional process.

“It is important to state that the inauguration of Mr Bola Tinubu on 29 May 2023 is bound to happen under our constitutional process,” he said.

“While the election tribunal deals with the petitions there is no constitutional process to delay the inauguration on 29 May. We need to obey the rule of constitutionalism.”