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 to third respondents, respectively.
Chris Uche SAN, the petitioners’ lawyer, 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.
Given the pressing national concern of the subject at hand, he pointed out that the application was a motion of priority that demands quick action.
“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.”
On his part, counsel for the 2nd respondent, Lateef Fagbemi said they received the application and “we are taking steps to respond appropriately to the application.”
In response, Uche SAN stated that he had just learned that the second and third respondents had filed a response, and that out of an attitude of cooperation, they were willing to accept service in 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.”
Justice Tsammani responded by asking parties to resolve all issues before making a decision, adding that the request for a live broadcast of the proceeding “will be considered together with the other issues.”
The pre-hearing of the petition against Tinubu was then postponed until Thursday, May 11, 2023, at 2pm.
Atiku and his party claimed in the 66-page appeal that as of March 1, when Tinubu was declared the winner of the election, INEC had not transferred and uploaded all of the results and accreditation data from voting places.
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.”
