The pre-hearing of the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party and Atiku Abubakar, its presidential candidate, against Bola Tinubu of the All Progressive Congress has been postponed until Thursday, May 11, 2023, by the Presidential Election appeal Court.
The PDP and Atiku are contesting the Independent National Electoral Commission’s declaration of Tinubu as the president-elect in the petition with the file number CA/PEPC/05/2023.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, Bola Tinubu, and the APC are listed as the petition’s first through third respondents, respectively.
Chris Uche SAN, the petitioners’ attorney, noted during Tuesday’s sessions that they had filed and served a motion dated May 7th asking for a live broadcast of the presidential tribunal proceeding.
He noted that the application was a motion of priority which requires immediate attention given the national importance of the issue at hand.
“We urge your Lordship to set it down for hearing and adoption as soon as the court’s business may allow.”
Responding, counsel for INEC, A.B Mahmoud acknowledged the application which he described as “innocuous” and requested time to respond “being served yesterday.”
Responding further, Uche SAN argued that he was just hearing that the 2nd and 3rd respondents have filed on the matter adding that in the spirit of cooperation, they are prepared to accept service in the open court.
“We pray that the parties don’t insist on the maximum length of time if we are to make progress.”
However, Fagbemi reacted to his claim and objected to it. According to him, “The motion was filed by 9:30am and not in the open court. If he said counsels should cooperate, we will follow the time and we will not flout the rules.”
Consequently, Justice Tsammani asked parties to settle all issues for objections and determination responding that the application for a live broadcast of the proceeding “will be considered together with the other issues.”
He thereafter adjourned the pre-hearing of the petition against Tinubu to Thursday, May 11, 2023, by 2pm.
In the 66-page petition, Atiku and his party 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.
They stated that, ‘’despite the failure to so transmit and several complaints for review, the 1st Respondent’s chairman refused all entreaties and applications for the suspension of the collation exercise and a review of the complaints before declaring a winner of the election and repeatedly off-handedly dared the petitioners to go to court.”