Presidential Poll: Tribunal starts pre-hearing session of petitions against Tinubu

The Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC), which is currently sitting in the Appeal Court in Abuja, has started a pre-hearing of the petitions that challenge the declaration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the winner of the presidential election that took place on February 25.

On March 1, 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced that Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had been elected president. Tinubu had received 8,794,726 votes, which allowed him to defeat his closest competitor, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who had received 6,984,520 votes, as well as Peter Obi of the Labour Party, who had secured 6,101,533 votes.

Tinubu has been declared the winner of the presidential election, but several of the candidates for president, including Atiku and Peter Obi, are contesting this decision.

It has been reported that a five-person panel of the PEPC, led by Justice Haruna Tsammani, is in the process of holding a pre-hearing session on all petitions that have been presented to it at this time.

According to the Cause list of the tribunal, the first case to be adjudicated will be the notification to the court by the Action Alliance (AA) and its Presidential Candidate in the election, Solomon David Okanigbuan, of their intentions to withdraw their petition against Tinubu. This will be the first case to be adjudicated by the tribunal.

The petitions submitted by the Action Peoples Party (APP) are also scheduled to be heard during the pre-hearing session. After this, we would move on to that of Peter Obi and the Labour Party (LP), which would be labelled CA/PEPC/03/2023.

The petition submitted by the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) would be dealt with next, followed by the petition submitted by Atiku Abubakar and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which is marked CA/PEPC/05/2023.

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An opening statement was made by the Chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Haruna Tsammani, approximately nine minutes and fifteen seconds after the court pre-hearing was resumed.

Justice Stephen Adah, Justice Monsurat Bolaji-Yusuf, Justice Boloukuoromo Moses Ugo, and Justice Abbah Mohammed are some of the other members of the panel.

It was maintained by Justice Tsammani that the panel will do the case justice, and he cautioned the solicitors against making any sensational comments.

In addition, he asked for their cooperation because the proceeding is time-sensitive. He warned them not to bring any applications that were not necessary because doing so would waste the time of the court.

In their separate responses, counsels to the President-Elect Wole Olanikpekun (SAN) and Chris Uche (SAN), representing Atiku, as well as Peter Obi’s lawyer Livy Uzoukwu (SAN), assured the court of their cooperation and support. Wole Olanikpekun is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. Chris Uche is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.

The assurance was given by Justice Tsammani that the verdict will meet the expectations of all parties involved in the case.