Today, Monday 8, 2023 has been fixed as the date for the hearing of presidential petitions against Bola Tinubu’s emergence as the president-elect of Nigeria.
Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, was announced the winner of the February 25 presidential poll by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Today is slated for the pre-hearing session to settle pending applications after which a timetable will be set for hearing of the substantive matters.
Background
The APC flag bearer polled 8,794,726 votes, while Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of Labour Party (LP) polled 6,984,520 and 6,101,533 votes respectively.
Both the PDP and LP are not satisfied with the conduct and outcome of the poll, hence their reliance on the judiciary to verify the results of the February 25th elections.
Aside the PDP and LP, Action Alliance’ Solomon Okangbuan and Allied People’s Movement, Chichi Ojei, are also in pole position for the tribunal to sit.
The first party to approach the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) over Tinubu’s declaration was Action Alliance (AA) and its presidential candidate, Solomon Okangbuan.
AA’s suit number is CA/PEPC/01/2023 and it filed its petition on March 16.
The second party to head to the PEPC was Action Peoples Party (APP), which filed its petition on March 19.
Subsequently, the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and its candidate, Chichi Ojei, with suit number: CA/PEPC/03/2023.
The Labour Party (LP) with its presidential candidate, Peter Obi in a suit marked: CA/PEPC/04/2023, disagrees with INEC’s decision.
Both APM and LP filed their suit on March 19.
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LP’s Obi has assembled 20 Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) in his 60-member legal team.
Atiku is also lining up 19 SANs to establish the claim of illegitimacy in the poll.
On his part, Tinubu has engaged 50 SANs, to defend his mandate, while his party is supporting him with 12 SANs.
As the PEPC to commences sitting any moment from now, Nigerians anxiously await the outcome of the tribunal, bearing in mind that the swearing-in of the president-elect is barely weeks away.
