The presidential election petition tribunal has fixed September 6 to deliver judgment on the petitions filed by the PDP and its candidate in the 2023 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi as well as the Allied People’s Movement challenging the election of President Bola Tinubu.
The Registrar of the Court of Appeal, Umar Bangari, made this known in a statement released on Monday notifying the public of the judgement. The statement also stated that the judgement will be televised live by interested television stations for the public to follow proceedings.
The statement read, “The court of appeal wishes to inform the general public that judgment in the following petitions before the Presidential Election Petition Court will be delivered on Wednesday, 6th September, 2023:
“• CAREPC/03/2023 between Mr. Peter Gregory Obi & Anor VS. Independent National Electoral Commission & 3 Ors.
“• CA/PEPC/04/2023 between Allied Peoples Movement VS. Independent National Electoral Commission & 4 Ors.
“• CA/PEPC/05/2023 between Abubakar Atiku & Anor VS. Independent National Electoral Commission & 2 Ors.
“In a bid to promote transparency and openness, these judgments will be televised live by interested Television Stations for the public to follow.
“Access to the Court premises will be strictly on accreditation.
“Only accredited individuals, including counsel and representatives of political parties, will be granted access into the Courtroom.
“Interested members of the public are advised to watch proceedings from their television sets”, the Registrar concluded.
It will be recalled that INEC Chairman had on February 27th declared Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC winner of the 2023 Presidential election. Tinubu secured 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who got 6,984,520, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) who polled 6,101,533 votes.
Not satisfied with the outcome, five political parties including the PDP, LP, Action Peoples Party (APP), Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and the Action Alliance (AA) lodged separate petitions before the tribunal seeking to annul Tinubu’s victory. The AA later withdrew its petition.
After conclusion of pre-hearing, hearing and filing of written addresses by parties, on August 1, the five-member panel of the tribunal reserved judgment after hearing the final written addresses from counsels to Atiku and Obi.