Nigerians are agog as the much-anticipated verdict of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) also known as the tribunal is expected to be delivered on Wednesday, September 6. The Presidential court sitting in Abuja will deliver judgment on petitions seeking to nullify President Bola Tinubu’s election.
The date was confirmed yesterday morning by the Chief Registrar of the Court of Appeal, Mr. Umar Bangari, exactly one month and four days after it concluded hearing in two separate petitions filed by presidential the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and that of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, challenging the declaration of Bola Tinubu as President,
The two petitions, marked CA/PEPC/05/2023 and CA/PEPC/03/2023, were brought before the court by a former Vice President and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, as well as the candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Mr Peter Obi, respectively.
Besides the petitions of Atiku and Obi, the presidential tribunal would also deliver judgment on the petition by the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) seeking the disqualification of Tinubu from the February 25 presidential election on account of the alleged unlawful nomination of the vice presidential candidate, Senator Kashim Shettima.
Bangari also assured that adequate security had been put in place, adding that only invited members of the political parties and the general public would be allowed into the courtroom to avoid congestion and security breaches and media houses interested in broadcasting the proceedings live at no cost to the court were welcomed.
Both Atiku and Obi, in their respective petitions, are claiming victory in the February 25 presidential poll, won by Tinubu of All Progressives Congress (APC).
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Tinubu the winner of the presidential election, on the grounds that he won a majority of the lawful votes cast at the polls.
Recall that INEC said Tinubu polled a total of 8,794,726 votes to emerge victorious. He was closely followed by Atiku, with 6,984,520 votes, and Obi, with 6,101,533 votes.
Displeased with the declaration, Atiku and Obi approached the court to argue and prove that Tinubu did not win a majority of lawful votes as claimed by the electoral umpire. They submitted that at the time INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, announced Tinubu as the winner, the collation was ongoing since many of the presidential election results were yet to be uploaded to the INEC’s Results Viewing (IReV) Portals.
Also Recall that the five-member panel of the Presidential Election Petition Court, led by Justice Haruna Tsammani, had on August 1 announced that the date for judgment in the two petitions would be communicated to parties, shortly after all parties adopted their final written addresses for and against the petitions.
While adopting their final written address, Atiku and the PDP, through their team of lawyers led by Chief Chris Uche, SAN, urged the court to declare that President Tinubu was not qualified to contest the presidential poll that was held on February 25. They prayed the presidential election tribunal to nullify the entire outcome of the presidential election and order a re-run or fresh contest.
Ahead of Wednesday’s judgement by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, the Labour Party has expressed confidence that its presidential candidate, Peter Obi will be declared the President.
In a statement Monday night, the National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Obiora Ifoh said, “We are positive that the judgement will favour the Labour Party and our presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
“We are also positive that the will of the people will prevail. Most Nigerians have waited this long and their wishes will be granted. The mandate freely expressed on February 25 will be returned to the rightful winner of the election.”