Paragraph 45
Enlargement and abridgement of time(1) The Tribunal or Court shall have power, subject to the provisions of section 134 of this Act and paragraph 11, to enlarge time for doing any act or taking any proceedings on such terms (if any) as the justice of the case may require except otherwise provided by any other provision of this Schedule.
(2) An enlargement of time may be ordered although the application for the enlargement is not made until after the expiration of the time appointed or allowed.
(3) When the time for delivering a pleading or document or filing any affidavit, answer or document, or doing anything or act is or has been fixed or limited by any of the sections, paragraphs or rules under or in pursuance of this Act or by a direction or an order of the Tribunal or Court, the costs of an application to extend the time, where allowed or of an order made there on shall be borne by the party making the application unless the Tribunal or Court otherwise orders.
(4) Every application for enlargement or abridgement of time shall be supported by affidavit.
(5) An application for abridgement of time may be ex parte, but the Tribunal or Court may require notice of the application to be given to the other parties to the election petition.
(6) An application for enlargement of time shall be made by motion after notice to the other party to the election petition but the Tribunal or Court may, for good cause shown by affidavit or otherwise, dispense with the notice.
(7) A copy of an order made for enlargement or abridgement of time shall be filed or delivered together with any document filed or delivered by virtue of the order.
i. This paragraph seeks to promote the principle of fair hearing as enshrined under Section 36 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) as it relates to time fixed for doing of anything by the Electoral Act or other Rules of Procedure.
ii.
The paragraph creates a window of opportunity for a party who might have run out of the
prescribed time for the doing of anything in the proceedings to apply to the Tribunal or
Court
for an order of extension of time to do such thing. A party can also apply to the Tribunal
or
Court for abridgment or reduction of the time fixed for doing anything. Note that the grant
of
an order under this Paragraph is strictly based on the discretion of the Tribunal or Court.
Read Daika & Anor v. INEC & Ors (2021) LPELR-54760(CA) and Stephen & Anor v. Moro & Ors
(2019) LPELR-48406(CA)
On Strict requirement of application for enlargement and abridgement of time:
THADDEUS AFFATAH & 1 OR v. OBANIKORO IBRAHIM BABAJIDE & 2 ORS. (CA/LA/EP/HR/LAG/19/2023) (Unreported) Per Muhammed L. Shuaibu, JCA @ Pg. 24.
The Appellant contended that the 1st and 2nd Respondents, as Petitioners at the Tribunal, went beyond the 3 weeks allowed them by paragraph 41(10) to prove their case and that the Tribunal should have foreclosed them especially considering that the Tribunal did not grant them an extension of time to prove their petition pursuant to paragraph 45.
The Court of Appeal while harping on the mandatory requirement for an application to be filed by a party seeking for enlargement and/or abridgement of
time for doing any act or taking any proceedings on such terms held that;
“Granted that from the above, the 1st and 2nd Respondents may not have set out to play off their time nor adopted a
lackadaisical attitude in proving their case, but the key issue is that was time extended to them for proving their petition?
The answer is in the negative. Although paragraph 45 of the 1st Schedule to the Electoral Act, 2022 made provision for enlargement and abridgement of
time as the justice of the case may require but in the absence of any application by the 1st and 2nd Respondents for that effect, this court cannot make an assumption.
Thus, the lower Tribunal was clearly wrong not to have foreclosed the case of the 1st and 2nd Respondents under paragraph 41(10) of the 1st Schedule to
the Electoral Act, 2022, considering the fact that election matters are sui generis and time is of the essence.”
