2023 Polls:PEPC set for Judgement on Sept.6, to televise proceedings live

By Edward E.C

The Presidential Election Petition Court, has confirmed Wednesday as date for judgment in the three petitions challenging the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.

Chief Registrar of the Court of Appeal, Mr Umar Bangari confirmed the date to judiciary correspondents on Monday.
According to Bangari, everything has been put in place to ensure that the judgment in the three petitions pending before the court is delivered hitch free.

They are the petitions filed by the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), Abubakar Atiku, the Labour Party and it’s Presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi and that of the Allied Peoples Movement, (APM).

Bangari said that adequate security had been put in place and that only the invited members of political parties and the general public would be allowed into the court room.This, he said, was to avoid congestion and security breaches.

He also said that media houses that wished to televise the judgment live would be allowed to so but at no cost to the court.

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, who 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 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.