Presidential Election Tribunal – Presidential Tribunal Begins Hearing Today

Today, Monday, May 8, the Presidential Election Tribunal will commence the hearing of complaints filed by opposition parties who are dissatisfied with the election of Bola Tinubu as the President-elect.

These parties have alleged that the February 25 presidential election was rigged in favour of the ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC). The defeated candidates had gone to court seeking justice after Tinubu of APC was declared the election winner.

Atiku Abubakar, who ran for the presidency under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Peter Obi from the Labour Party, along with other individuals, have taken their case to the tribunal in an attempt to overturn the election results that declared Tinubu as the winner.

They claim that the election was not conducted in accordance with the Constitution, the Electoral Act, and the guidelines of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and therefore, Tinubu’s victory was illegitimate.

Atiku, a previous vice president, has based his legal challenge on five reasons and is urging the court to instruct the electoral commission to organize a new presidential election because of what he claims were irregularities at polling stations during the previous election.

Atiku and his party assert that Tinubu was declared the election’s victor before all the results and accreditation data from the polling stations had been sent and uploaded by INEC.

Obi, who served as governor of Anambra state in the past, claims that there were several violations during the election process. He asserts that Tinubu and his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima, were not eligible to participate in the election.

Additionally, Obi argues that Tinubu did not secure the majority of legal votes and could not obtain at least 25% of the votes in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.

According to DAILY POST, the Court is scheduled to release a complete schedule for hearing the main petitions filed against the President-elect during today’s pre-hearing session at the election tribunal.

At the same time, Festus Keyamo, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, claimed that some foreign lawyers were brought into the country to prevent the inauguration of Tinubu on May 29.

The Court of Appeal has a five-member panel of judges presiding over the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, with Justice Haruna Tsammani as the head. The other panel members are Justice Stephen Adah, Justice Misitura Bolaji-Yusuf, Justice Boloukuoromo Moses Ugo, and Justice Abbah Mohammed.

During the pre-hearing on Monday, there was tight security as police officers blocked off the road leading to the court.

The panel of judges headed by Justice Tsammani declared it would start its pre-hearing session today, focusing on three petitions.

These petitions include the ones submitted by Action Alliance (AA) with the reference number CA/PEPC/01/2023, Action Peoples Party (APP) with the reference number CA/PEPC/02/2023, and Peter Obi & Labour Party (LP) with the reference number CA/PEPC/03/2023.

Here are some photos from the court session that took place on today.