Presidential poll: Court adjourns hearing on Atiku’s petition till Friday

Chigozie Ikpo, Abuja

The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), sitting in Abuja, has adjourned till today (Friday), the pre-hearing process on the petition filed by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to challenge the outcome of the February 25 presidential poll.
The Five-member panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani adjourned to continue further pre-hearing session on the petition as well as to hear pending applications filed by the respondents.
The petition marked: CA/PEPC/05/2023 have the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC), listed as 1st to 3rd respondents respectively.
Justice Tsammani while adjourning the matter, said the court would on Friday, decide on the number of witnesses that would be allowed for each of the parties, time to be allocated to them, as well as the time to be allowed for cross examination.
He urged the parties to put heads together and agree on further modalities to be adopted.
Meanwhile, the legal teams of Atiku and Tinubu have agreed not to object all documents from INEC in the conduct of the February 25 presidential election.
However, parties insisted that the documents must be certified as true reflection of the original copies in line with the provisions of the law guiding admissibility of documents.
Atiku through his legal team led by Chief Chris Uche (SAN), conveyed the decisions of the lawyers to the Court.
Confirming the statement, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) and Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) representing APC, said they have jointly agreed not to object to all certified documents from the electoral body and to allow the documents to be freely scrutinized by the Court in order to arrive at just and fair conclusions in their judgment.
Counsel to INEC, Mr. A. B. Mahmoud(SAN), said they will be ready to make all the required documents available at the appropriate time as a way of ensuring speedy and expeditious hearing of all the petitions.
On the application for live telecast of proceedings, Justice Tsammani reserved ruling till a later date, after taking arguments from lawyers of parties in the case.
Counsel for the Petitioners, Chris Uche (SAN) informed the court of their pending request and prayed the court to grant the request in their motion filed on May 7, for an order allowing the televising of the proceedings in their petition.
Uche, while laying emphasis on the five grounds of the application, said it is of utmost importance due to the monumental national significance of the petition before the court.
The respondents, Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN) for INEC, Wole Olanipekun (SAN) for Tinubu and Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) for the APC filed a counter affidavit to the request by the Petitioners, urging the court to refuse the application.
They described the application as ridiculous, intended to among others, trivialize the court’s business, adding that the court has met the constitutional requirement by making sufficient arrangements for the public to follow the proceedings by allowing a large media presence and providing huge television screens at the court’s foyer.
Justice Tsammani, after taking arguments on the application, reserved ruling till a later date.
Atiku in his petition prayed the court to among other things, withdraw the Certificate of Return that was issued to the President-elect by INEC and make an order, declaring Tinubu’s victory at the polls as invalid citing non-compliance to the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.
He further argued that Tinubu’s election was invalid by reason of corrupt practices, insisting that he was not duly elected by majority of lawful votes cast at the election.
Atiku further prayed the court to declare him as the winner of the presidential election, having secured the second highest number of lawful votes cast at the election
The respondents are praying the court to dismiss the case in its entirety or in the alternative, strike out many paragraphs of the petition for being incompetent.