The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) has fixed September 6 to deliver judgment on the petitions challenging the victory of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the February 25 elections.
In a statement released on Monday by the Registrar of the Court of Appeal, Umar Bangari, registrar of the court of appeal, the court will also allow a live telecast of proceedings, for transparency.
The statement reads; “The court of appeal wishes to inform the general public that judgment in the following petitions before the Presidential Election Petition Court will be delivered on Wednesday, 6th September, 2023:
“• CAREPC/03/2023 between Mr. Peter Gregory Obi & Anor VS. Independent National Electoral Commission & 3 Ors.
“• CA/PEPC/04/2023 between Allied Peoples Movement VS. Independent National Electoral Commission & 4 Ors.
“• CA/PEPC/05/2023 between Abubakar Atiku & Anor VS. Independent National Electoral Commission & 2 Ors.
“In a bid to promote transparency and openness, these judgments will be televised live by interested Television Stations for the public to follow.
“Access to the Court premises will be strictly on accreditation.
“Only accredited individuals, including counsel and representatives of political parties, will be granted access into the Courtroom.
“Interested members of the public are advised to watch proceedings from their television sets.”
The February 25 polls saw Tinubu secure a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who got 6,984,520, while Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) polled 6,101,533 votes.
Not satisfied with the outcome, five political parties including the PDP, LP, Action Peoples Party (APP), Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and the Action Alliance (AA) lodged separate petitions before the tribunal seeking to annul Tinubu’s victory.
At the commencement of the pre-hearing session in May, the APP and AA withdrew their petitions.
The hearing session soon began and several issues were raised by the Petitioners, whom claimed that Tinubu and his Vice, Kashim Shettima were ineligible to contest the election.
In their final addresses, they claimed that the president was indicted for drug trafficking in the United States and faulted his his academic certificates submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as well as the issue of Guinean Citizenship which he did not reveal at the time of registration.
Also raised by the petitioners was the issue of 25% of votes cast at the Federal Capital Territory, as they claimed that since Tinubu failed to meet the requirement, he should not have been declared winner of the February 25 election.
The five-member panel of the tribunal, led by Justice Haruna Tsammani, had on August 1 reserved judgment after all parties adopted their final written addresses in their various petitions.
