AFRICA ( Commonwealth Union) _ The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) in Abuja has consolidated three separate petitions that aim to nullify the results of the 2023 presidential election. A five-member panel, headed by Justice Haruna Tsammani, dismissed objections raised by President-elect Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) regarding the merger of the petitions.
The court determined that the cases should be consolidated since they all pertain to the same election. The Labour Party (LP) candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, is scheduled to present his case against the election outcome on May 30. The court reduced the time Obi requested to present his case from seven weeks to three weeks.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu, Vice President-elect Senator Kashim Shettima, and the 4th respondent, Kabiru Masari, were given varying periods to defend the petition. The court stated that final briefs of argument would be adopted on August 5, after which a date for judgment would be set. Apart from Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Obi of the LP, the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) also filed a petition challenging the election outcome. Two other parties, the Action Alliance (AA) and the Action Peoples Party (APP), withdrew their cases. The PEPC panel hinted at a potential ban on mobile phones in the courtroom for both lawyers and the public on the next adjourned date.
On Monday, May 22, at the appeal court in Abuja, Justice Haruna Tsammani delivered a decision regarding the application made by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party. The court dismissed their request to televise the proceedings, stating that such an arrangement was not specified in Nigeria’s constitution or legal framework. The ruling emphasized that televising the proceedings was a novel idea and did not contribute any value to the petition.
