The Presidential Election Petition Court began hearing today as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, filed an application for live coverage of the day-to-day proceedings against the President-elect, Bola Tinubu. Atiku, who came second in the February 25 presidential election, argued that the case he lodged against Tinubu was a matter of national concern and public interest, involving citizens and the electorate in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. He contended that the international community was equally interested in issues pertaining to Nigeria’s electoral process.
Atiku and PDP’s motion specifically applied for “an order, directing the Court’s Registry and the parties on modalities for admission of Media Practitioners and their Equipment into the courtroom.”
They argued that their case against Tinubu, being a unique electoral dispute with a peculiar constitutional dimension, was a matter of public interest in which millions of Nigerian citizens and voters, who are stakeholders, with the constitutional right to be part of the proceedings.
Atiku and PDP further argued that the huge technological advances and developments in Nigeria and beyond, including the current trend towards embracing electronic procedures, virtual hearing, and electronic filing, made it necessary to depart from the rules and allow a regulated televising of the proceedings. They believed this was in consonance with the maxim that justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done.
Tinubu, through his team of lawyers led by Wole Olanipekun, SAN, questioned the legal competence of petitions seeking to invalidate his election victory in a preliminary objection he entered before the court. Tinubu described Atiku as a consistent serial loser that had since 1993, crisscrossed different political parties in search of power.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Tinubu the winner of the presidential poll on March 1, ahead of 17 other candidates that contested the election. Tinubu scored a total of 8,794,726 votes, while Atiku polled a total of 6,984,520 votes and Peter Obi came third with a total of 6,101,533 votes.
Aside from Atiku and the PDP, the Labour Party (LP) and its candidate, Mr Peter Obi, are equal before the court to nullify Tinubu’s election. The three-member panel of the Presidential Election Petition Court, which will conduct its proceedings at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, will today commence a pre-hearing session on all the petitions brought before it by aggrieved presidential candidates and their political parties.
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