The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, have submitted a request for an order allowing live coverage of daily proceedings on the lawsuit they brought against the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, as the Presidential Election Petition Court begins hearing today.
Through his legal team, led by Chris Uche, SAN, Atiku, who finished second in the presidential election on February 25, specifically requested “An order, directing the Court’s Registry and the parties on modalities for admission of Media Practitioners and their Equipment into the courtroom.”
The former vice president and candidate for the PDP argued that the petition he filed against the president-elect was “a matter of national concern and public interest.”
He said that the action covered the voters and inhabitants of the 36 federation states as well as the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja, who he claimed had cast ballots and taken part in the presidential election.
The International Community was equally interested in matters relating to Nigeria’s electoral process, he pointed out to the court.
Atiku and the PDP argued in the motion that their case against Tinubu was one of public interest because millions of Nigerian citizens and voters, who are stakeholders, have the constitutional right to participate in the proceedings. This particular electoral dispute has a peculiar constitutional dimension.
They argue that deviating from the rules to permit a controlled telecast of the proceedings in this case is in consonance with the enormous and tremendous technological advances and developments in Nigeria and elsewhere, including the current trend by this court towards embracing electronic procedures, virtual hearings, and electronic filing.
“Televising court proceedings is not alien to this court, and will enhance public confidence”, the petitioners added.
In his joint lawsuit with the PDP, Atiku asked the court to revoke the Certificate of Return that the All Progressives Congress, the party in power, had given to Tinubu through the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
He said that Tinubu’s announcement as the winner of the presidential election was “invalid by reason of non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.”
However, in a response, Tinubu questioned the legal legitimacy of petitions seeking to void his election victory through a team of attorneys led by Wole Olanipekun, SAN.
Atiku was characterized by Tinubu in a preliminary objection he filed before the court as a persistent loser who had switched political parties numerous times since 1993 in search of power.
You may recall that on March 1, INEC declared Tinubu the winner of the presidential election over the other 17 contenders who ran for the position.
In order to overcome Atiku, who received a total of 6,984,520 votes, and Obi, who received a total of 6,101,533 votes, it was ruled that Tinubu received 8,794,726 votes overall.
In addition to Atiku and the PDP, the Labour Party, LP, and its third-place finisher in the poll, Mr. Peter Obi, are on equal footing with them in the courtroom to challenge Tinubu’s victory.
A three-member PEPC panel will begin a pre-hearing session on all of the petitions that were submitted to it by disgruntled presidential candidates and their political parties today. The panel will conduct its hearings at the Court of Appeal in Abuja.
