May 08, (THEWILL) – The Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC), sitting at the Appeal Court, Abuja, has commenced a pre-hearing of the petitions challenging the declaration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as winner of the February 25 presidential election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on March 1, 2023, declared Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), president-elect, after he polled 8,794,726 votes to beat his closest rival, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 6,984,520 votes, and Labour Party’s Peter Obi, who secured 6,101,533 votes.
Atiku, Peter Obi, among other presidential candidates are challenging the declaration of Tinubu as winner of the presidential election.
THEWILL reports that a five-member panel of the PEPC, led by Justice Haruna Tsammani, is currently holding a pre-hearing session on all petitions brought before it.
According to the Cause list of the tribunal, the first case to be adjudicated, is the Action Alliance (AA) and its Presidential Candidate in the election, Solomon David Okanigbuan, notifying the court of their intentions to withdraw their petition against Tinubu.
Other petitions slated for the pre-hearing session are those of the Action Peoples Party (APP). This would be followed by that of Peter Obi and the Labour Party (LP), marked CA/PEPC/03/2023.
The Petition of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) would proceed next, while Atiku Abubakar and the PDP’s petition, marked CA/PEPC/05/2023, would be treated last.
The court pre-hearing resumed at about 9:15 am with an opening remark by the Chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Haruna Tsammani.
Other members of the panel include Justice Stephen Adah, Justice Monsurat Bolaji-Yusuf, Justice Boloukuoromo Moses Ugo and Justice Abbah Mohammed.
Justice Tsammani maintained the panel will do justice to the case and advised the lawyers against making sensational comments.
He also asked for their cooperation since the case is time bound and they should be wary of bringing unnecessary applications that will 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
Justice Tsammani assured that everyone will be satisfied with the verdict at the end of the case.
