Presidential Election Petition Court Consolidates Obi, Atiku, APM’s Petitions Against Tinubu
The Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, sitting in Abuja Nigeria’s capital, has consolidated the three petitions that are challenging the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.
At a resumed pre-hearing on Tuesday, a five-member panel of the court led by Justice Haruna Tsammani, dismissed objections of President-elect, Ahmed Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, on consolidation of all the petitions.
The court determined that since all of the claims involved the same election, it was in the interest of justice that they be merged and handled as a single petition.
As a result, the tribunal set May 30 as the date for commencement of hearing of the consolidated petition.
Meanwhile, the court has fixed May 30 for the candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Mr. Peter Obi, to open his case against his petition, challenging the 2023 presidential election.
Additionally, the tribunal gave Obi and Atiku three weeks, each, to call witnesses.
The court also gave the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu and the Vice President-elect, Kashim Shettima, five days each to make their defence against the petition.
Also, the court gave the 5th respondent in the case, Kabiru Masari, three days to also defend himself.
Among others, Justice Tsammani ordered that Obi must open his petition for hearing on May 30 and end same on June 23.
The Court said that it arrived at the decision because of the limited time within which the petition must be disposed off.
The court stressed that the parties would adopt final briefs of argument on August 5 to enable it to fix a date for judgement.
The three consolidated petitions are, from Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who came second in the election, Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP who came third in the election, and the Allied Peoples Movement, APM.
