The Presidential Election Petitions Court has fixed Monday, May 8 for the hearing of the petitions challenging the declaration of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the President-elect.
The hearing on Monday is only a preliminary hearing, according to Tinubu’s legal counsel. Before the main hearing begins, the hearing is to determine if there are any applications. A schedule will be created for the hearing on the important issues.
On April 23, the petitioners’ responses to the court stopped as well.
Due to his party receiving the majority of the votes cast, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Mahmood Yakubu had declared Tinubu the President-Elect on March 1.
He had polled 8.8 million to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 6.9 million, Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) who amassed 6.1 million and 15 others.
Disputing the Result, Atiku and Obi filed separate petitions seeking orders to annul the election or declare them the winners of the polls.
The PDP presidential candidate, who anchored his seven prayers on five grounds, asked the Presidential Election Tribunal to declare him the president-elect.
Alternatively, Atiku urged the court to cancel the election and order a fresh election due to alleged irregularities that marred the February 25 polls in thousands of polling units.
In their petition, Atiku and the PDP argued that as of March 1 when Tinubu was declared the winner of the election, the entire results and accreditation data from polling units had not been transmitted and uploaded by INEC.
Obi, who came third in the election, alleged that the election was characterised by various irregularities including the non-qualification of Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima to contest the election.
He also alleged that Tinubu failed to win the majority of the lawful votes cast in the election, and just as he could not secure one-quarter of the lawful votes cast in the FCT.