Following the February 25 presidential election, Five political parties and their candidates are respectively challenging the outcome of the election on grounds of non-compliance with the electoral laws as well as the guidelines of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The five-member panel of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) led by Justice Haruna Tsammani has announced that it would commence its pre-hearing session today with three petitions.
Justice Tsammani said, the petitions to be considered today during the pre-hearing would be the first three petitions while the 4th and 5th petitions “can take off tomorrow.
They are marked CA/PEPC/01/2023 by the Action Alliance party (AA) and its standard bearer Solomon Okanigbuan; CA/PEPC/02/2023 filed by the Action People’s Party (APP) as the sole petitioner; and CA/PEP/03/2023 by the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
He said the court has scheduled hearing on the other two petitions – by Allied Peoples Movement (APM) marked: CA/PEPC/04/2023, and Atiku Abubakar & the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) marked: CA/PEPC/05/2023 – for Tuesday.
He urged lawyers representing all the petitioners to avoid sensational comments, stressing that the court would not tolerate time wasting tactics and technicalities.
Responding, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), Chris Uche (SAN), Levy Uzoukwu (SAN) and Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN), who are leading the legal teams of petitioners, agreed to work with the court to ensure prompt determination of the petition and to achieve justice.
Other members of the panel are Justice Stephen Adah of the Court of Appeal Asaba division, Justice Misitura Bolaji-Yusuf, Court of Appeal also of Asaba Division, Justice Boloukuoromo Ugoh of Kano division, Justice Abba Mohammed of Ibadan Court of Appeal.
