Presidential Elections Tribunal to deliver judgement September 6, permits live broadcast

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After several weeks of keeping Nigerians in suspense, the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal, PEPT, will on Wednesday, 6 September 2023, deliver judgement in the three petitions challenging the declaration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as winner of the 2023 presidential election.

This is according to a statement issued by the Chief Registrar of the Court of Appeal Headquarters, Umar Mohammed Bangari on Monday.

Bangari in his statement, said that everything has been put in place to ensure a hitch-free delivery of the judgment in the three petitions.

The registrar also revealed that the presidential tribunals’ judgement on the said date, would be aired live on interested television stations’ channels.

He said this was to promote, transparency and openness and for Nigerians to watch, adding that only counsels and accredited members of political parties, and the general public would be allowed into the courtroom to avoid congestion and security breaches.

His 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: CA/PEPC/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 to the courtroom. Interested members of the public are advised to watch proceedings from their television sets. We appeal for the maximum cooperation of the general public to ensure a hitch-free exercise, please.”

Recall that the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal had in May, merged the petitions submitted by the various political parties while giving the pre-hearing report on the petition and presenting the trial schedule.

It also reserved judgment on the petitions filed by the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party in order to deliver the judgements on the same day as that of Peter Obi of the Labour Party.

The genesis of the various petitions pending judgement at the PEPT was the declaration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as winner of the 2023 presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC on March 1, 2023.

According to INEC, Tinubu (APC) polled 8,794,726 votes representing 36.61% of the total votes cast at the election to emerge victorious while Atiku (PDP) who came second scored 6,984,520 representing 29.07% of the votes cast.

Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) was announced to have scored 6,101,533 representing 25.40% of the votes cast during the disputed election.

Also, Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP came fourth with 1,496,687 representing 6.40% of the votes cast while Princess Chichi Ojei, the only female presidential candidate in the election came fifth with a lean 25,961 total votes.

Following the declarations, both Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar in their respective cases, are challenging the election on the basis of INEC’s failure to carry out electronic transmission of results from the polling units.

They are also arguing that Tinubu failed to secure a majority of votes cast in the election and 25 percent of votes cast in the federal capital territory (FCT) which they argued is a constitutional requirement for a candidate to win the election.

Another issue raised by the petitioners is that the APC vice-presidential candidate, Kashim Shettima, had a double nomination both as vice-president and as senatorial candidate for Borno Central.