The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) sitting in Abuja yesterday adjourned further pre-hearing session on the Labour Party (LP) and its candidate, Peter Obi’s petition filed to nullify the February 25 Tinubu’s election victory till Wednesday, May 10.
The court equally fixed the same date for another petition by the Action Peoples Party (APP), while it adjourned the case of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, till today, May 9.
Adjourning the cases, the court urged the parties to identify all the witness statements and documents they would rely on, or object to, during the actual hearing of the petitions.
Among those in court to witness the proceedings included the presidential candidate of the LP, Obi.
One of the high dramas of the hearing occurred when during the proceeding, the court barred Plateau State governor, Simon Lalong, from standing before it as the representative of the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
The Plateau State Governor had stood up and announced himself as Tinubu’s representative after the first petitioner was called upon.
“My Lords, my name is Simon Lalong, and I am here to represent Tinubu,” the governor had stated.
However, Justice Haruna Tsammani-led’s five-member panel declined to so recognise him.
The presiding justice held, “You cannot represent an individual. Tinubu is not a corporation that would need a representative.”
“My lords, in that case, I will represent the All Progressives Congress (APC),” Lalong responded.
•Scenario
Meanwhile, the pre-hearing session of the February 25, 2023 election held yesterday was conducted in an environment laden with heavy security.
At the hearing, disputants to the result of the presidential election led by PDP’s Atiku and LP standard bearer, Obi, set the tone for attempts to annul the victory of APC presidential candidate, Tinubu.
Amid heavy layers of security, lawyers converged on the tribunal venue in Abuja for a pre-hearing of the petitions challenging the outcome of the February 25 presidential election.
Atiku, Obi, and other litigants were challenging the outcome of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) results which credited the eventual president-elect, APC’s Tinubu with 8,794,726 votes; Atiku, 6,984,520 votes, and Obi, third, with 6,101,533 votes.
However, not satisfied with the outcome, Atiku and Obi, and other ‘losers’ approached the poll tribunal, urging the learned judges to annul Tinubu’s victory.
•Obi arrives presidential election court as hearing begins
Yesterday, the LP presidential candidate, Obi, and other eminent dignitaries stormed the court premises.
The candidate came to the venue as the hearing began.
Obi is one of the petitioners challenging the March 1st declaration of Tinubu as the winner of the presidential election and Nigeria’s president-elect.
The tribunal began with Justice Tsamani heading the panel hearing the petitions challenging Tinubu’s election.
Other members of the panel are Justices Stephen Adah, who is the presiding justice of the Asaba Division of the Court of Appeal; as well as Justices Monsurat Yusuf, Moses Ugo, and Abba Mohammed.
The presiding judge, Justice Tsamani, in his opening remarks, said the court is the presidential election petition court and not a tribunal and warned against sensational statements for the safety of the country.
“We have five petitions before us, which we shall be alternating during the pre-hearing session. We should avoid unnecessary time-wasting applications as election matters are time-bound”, he said and promised that Justice will be done at the end of the day.
•Heavy security
This was observed around the court premises, which were almost impervious as men of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) cordoned off the road leading to the court.
From the cause list, the unveiling of the tribunal, and the first case to be adjudicated, the Action Alliance (AA) and its presidential candidate in the election, Solomon Okanigbuan, notified the tribunal of their intention to withdraw their petition against the declaration of Tinubu as Nigeria’s president-elect after the unveiling of the tribunal.
Justice Tsammani maintained the panel will do justice to the case and advised the lawyers against making sensational comments.
He also asked for their cooperation since the case was time-bound, adding that they should be wary of bringing unnecessary applications that would waste the time of the court.
In their separate responses, counsels to the president-elect, Wole Olanikpekun, and of Atiku Abubakar, Chris Uche, as well as Obi’s lawyer, Livy Uzoukwu, assured the court of their full cooperation and support.
The presiding judge concluded that everyone will be satisfied with the verdict at the end of the case.
•AA withdraws petition
Another scene from the day’s drama occurred when the Action Alliance (AA) withdrew its petition where it challenged the victory of President-elect, Tinubu.
The leader of the political party’s legal team, Oba Maduabuchi (SAN), informed the court of the intention of the party to withdraw its petition against Tinubu and the electoral umpire, INEC.
The senior lawyer informed the court that he had applied to discontinue further proceedings where the party had challenged the outcome of the presidential election, stressing that a withdrawal notice had been filed to that effect on May 3, 2023.
Justice Tsamani consequently dismissed the petition after all the respondents did not object to the withdrawal.
In its petition marked CA/PEPC/01/2023, and filed on March 16, the AA insisted that though its presidential candidate, Okanigbuan, was validly nominated to contest the presidential election, he was, however, unlawfully excluded by the INEC.
It also argued that the presidential election was, therefore, “invalid for non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022, as amended.”
The party argued that Tinubu was not validly elected as his election ‘contravened’ the Electoral Act, the 1999 Constitution, and INEC Guidelines for the 2023 general elections.
The petitioners told the court that Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, who was cited as the 4th respondent, was not a member of the AA, and was not sponsored by the party, adding that he did not participate in its presidential primary election.
•Atiku, PDP seeks live broadcast of court proceedings
In another development, the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku, has approached the PEPC, seeking an order to allow live broadcast of proceedings of his petition.
Atiku and the PDP, in an application dated May 5, prayed to the court for an order directing the court’s registry and the parties on modalities for admission of media practitioners and their equipment into the courtroom.
The application filed by their team of lawyers was led by Chief Chris Uche, SAN, and is premised because the matter before the court was a dispute over the outcome of the presidential election held on February 25 and, therefore, a matter of national concern and public interest.
They also contended that being a unique electoral dispute with a peculiar constitutional dimension, it was a matter of public interest where millions of Nigerians were stakeholders with a constitutional right to receive.
“An integral part of the constitutional duty of the court to hold proceedings in public is a discretion to allow public access to proceedings either physically or by electronic means.
“With the huge and tremendous technological advances and developments in Nigeria and beyond, including the current trend by this court towards embracing electronic procedures, virtual hearing, and electronic filing, a departure from the rules to allow a regulated televising of the proceedings in this matter aligns with the maxim that justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done.
“Televising court proceedings is not alien to this court, and will enhance public confidence,” the Atiku team argued.
Recall that the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), in its communique at the end of its National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Birnin Kebbi on March 23 made a similar call.
The NBA had urged the judiciary to allow for live broadcasts of court hearings on election petitions, particularly the presidential election cases.
Also, a group, under the aegis of Leaders of Thoughts and Legal Icons, had supported the initiative.
The group had invited Nigerians to sign an appeal on an online platform in support of the initiative.
A human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, also backed calls for live broadcasts of election petition trials.
No date has been fixed for hearing of the application.
•Avoid technicalities, focus on substance, PEPC panel tells lawyers
On its part, the PEPC has asked lawyers representing all those who filed petitions before the court to avoid unnecessary technicalities and address the substance of their petitions.
