May 11, (THEWILL) – The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), sitting in Abuja, has adjourned further proceedings on the joint petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, challenging the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.
The five-member panel, led by Justice Haruna Tsammani, adjourned the petition until May 18, for the continuation of the pre-hearing session.
The adjournment was at the instance of the parties whose legal representatives told the court that there are a number of outstanding issues and that they have unanimously decided to take one week to finalise them.
Briefing the court on the development, Counsel for Atiku and the PDP, Chris Uche (SAN), said the parties met and agreed on modalities to be adopted with a view to ensuring a seamless progression of the pre-hearing session.
“My lords, counsel for the respective parties have met and put heads together to harmonise and streamline the vital areas and components of the pre-hearing process.
“The first item resolved by the various counsel are documents and we agreed to set up a team together to look at the documents and agree on them in order to eliminate objections while tendering them from the Bar during the hearing.
“We intend to complete that between Monday and Tuesday next week and then prepare a schedule of documents to facilitate the hearing.
“The second one is the issues for trial. For the petitioners we have filed ours on May 11, that is today, and served it on all the parties, subject to any modifications by the honourable court.
“Lastly, with respect to motions pending before your lordships, for us at the moment we have just one motion filed on May 7.
“We are yet to receive responses of the Respondents in respect of the motion which is for televising of the proceedings.
“All together, we have been served with four motions; two from the 1st Respondent and two from the 3rd Respondent.
“We have reacted to the first one by the 1st Respondent and preparing our response to the other ones since we were served not long ago.
“We have agreed to file all our responses and take all of them next week Thursday, subject to the convenience of the court”, Uche said.
On the application for live coverage of proceedings of the court, the Respondents said they would file their responses before Monday.
While considering the request for adjournment, the court agreed with the position of the lead counsels to the parties, saying it will help fast track the hearing of the case.
In a joint petition marked CA/PEPC/05/2023, the PDP and Atiku are challenging the declaration of Tinubu as the president-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Listed as 1st to 3rd respondents in the petition are the INEC, Bola Tinubu, and the APC.
