The petition contesting the proclamation of Senator Bola Tinubu, the candidate for the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the president-elect, will be heard by the Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC) on Monday, May 8.
It was learned that the anticipated legal battle between candidates contesting the results of the 2023 presidential election will start on May 8. Ahmad El-Marzuq, the APC’s national legal adviser, confirmed the date and stated that the legal team had been briefed and was prepared to defend the party’s mandate.
“We have been briefed about the hearing coming up next week,” he said. A member of Tinubu’s legal team, Tayo Oyetibo (SAN), also said the hearing had been scheduled to commence on Monday. Oyetibo said: “Yes, the hearing is on Monday, but it’s for a pre-hearing session. The hearing is to clarify if there are any applications before the main hearing will start. The timetable will be set for the hearing of the substantive matters.”
Findings also revealed that the petitioners’ responses to the court ceased coming on April 23. On March 1, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), declared Tinubu the president-elect on the basis that his party received the majority of the votes cast.
Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who received 6.9 million votes, Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), who received 6.1 million votes, and 15 other candidates were all defeated by the former governor of Lagos State, who received 8.8 million votes.
Atiku and Obi, who were both dissatisfied with the outcome, have both contested the results and filed separate petitions asking for decisions to invalidate the election or declare them the victorious candidates.
Due to alleged irregularities that allegedly marred the February 25 voting in thousands of polling units, Atiku petitioned the court to invalidate the election and order a new election. Through a team of senior lawyers led by Joe-Kyari Gadzama (SAN), Atiku and his party argued in a 66-page petition that as of March 1, when Tinubu was declared the election’s victor, INEC had not transmitted and uploaded all of the results and accreditation information from polling places.
For his side, Obi claimed in his suit that the election was marred by a number of anomalies, noting among other things the purported ineligibility of Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima.
Additionally, he claimed that Tinubu did not receive a majority of valid votes or one-fourth of all valid ballots cast in the Federal Capital Territory. He also claimed that there were significant legal violations in the way the election was conducted.
Since then, Atiku and Obi’s petitions have received responses from Tinubu and the APC. Additionally, other political parties and their candidates are requesting that the tribunal rule against Tinubu’s election as the next president.