The Justice Haruna Tsammani-led five-member panel sitting in Abuja, on Monday, dismissed request to allow the broadcast of its day-to-day proceedings on petitions seeking to nullify the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.
The Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC dismissed as lacking in merit, the application which was brought before it by the two major candidates that are challenging the outcome of the February 25 presidential polls.
The court stated that no regulatory framework or policy direction, permitted it to grant such request.
It held that allowing cameras in the courtroom is a major judicial policy that must be supported by the law.
“The court can only be guided and act in accordance with the practice directions and procedures approved by the President of the Court of Appeal.
“We cannot permit a situation that may lead to dramatisation of our proceedings,” Justice Tsammani held.
The court held that the request was not part of any relief in the petitions before it, adding that it was merely hinged on sentimental claim that it would benefit the electorates.
While former Vice President and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who came second in the election initially made the request for a live broadcast, the candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, joined in the demand for live coverage of proceedings of the court on the petitions.
The duo, through their lead lawyers, Chief Chris Uche, SAN, and Dr. Livy Uzoukwu, SAN, maintained that petitions they lodged to query the declaration of the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, as winner of the election, was “a matter of monumental national concern and public interest”.
The court maintained that the petitioners failed to show how televising the proceedings would advance their case, adding that such live broadcast would not have any utilitarian value to add to the determination of the petitions.