Tinubu’s Camp Reveals What to Expect as Election Petitions Tribunal Commences Hearing Today

Patrick OdeyMay 8, 2023

2 minutes read

As the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal commences hearing today, the camp of the President-elect, Bola Tinubu has expressed their expectations.

Recall that Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP, and his counterpart in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, are challenging the declaration of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as the winner of the February 25 presidential poll.

According to The Punch, reveal that a senior lawyer in Tinubu’s camp, who pleaded anonymity said today’s hearing is going to be all about the preparation of the timetable for the case hearing.

It would be recalled that Tinubu, who was the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared winner of the 2023 presidential by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

While Tinubu scored 8,794,726 votes to emerge as a winner, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) came second with 6,984,520 votes, while the Labour Party’s Peter Obi came third with 6,101,533 votes.

However, in separate petitions, Atiku and Obi have challenged the results of the 2023 general election that produced Tinubu as a winner.

They and others then approached the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to annul Tinubu’s victory.

Atiku is asking the court, among others, to order the electoral body to conduct a fresh election following alleged irregularities at polling units during the presidential poll.

On his part, Obi said that Tinubu failed to win the majority of lawful votes and could not garner one-quarter of the votes in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.

He also alleged irregularities in the conduct of the election, arguing that Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima, were not qualified to run for the election.

However, reacting to the start of the hearing today, the senior lawyer in Tinubu’s said “The only thing they will do is to schedule the hearing, the number of witnesses, how many minutes the witness will use, and how to admit the documents; that’s what they call pre-trial.

“They are going to prepare a timetable for the hearing of the cases, the number of days to be spent by the petitioners, the number of days to be spent by the respondents, how do we take in the documents, certified true copy of the documents, are they going to be admitted like that or if there is an objection, how do we raise an objection to document?

“Will the court write a ruling on objection immediately or will the court write it in the cause of the main judgment? Those are the things that will happen tomorrow (Monday).”