BREAKING: Presidential Election Court Adjourns Atiku, PDP, APM Cases To May 11

The Presidential Election Pe­tition Court (PEPC) sitting in Abuja, on Tuesday, adjourned the pre-hearing session in re­spect of the petition filed by for­mer Vice President Atiku Abu­bakar and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, challenging the declaration of Bola Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential election. Continue Reading>>>...CONTINUE READING>>>

Similarly, the PEPC ad­journed the petition marked CA/PEPC/04/2023, filed by Al­lied Peoples Movement (APM) against the Independent Na­tional Electoral Commission (INEC), All Progressives Con­gress (APC), Bola Tinubu, Kashim Shettima, and Kabiru Masari.

Earlier at the pre-hearing session, counsel to the APM, O. M Alayibi, as well as lawyers to INEC, Tinubu, APC and the oth­er respondents, all confirmed to the PEPC that they had filed an­swers to the questions contained in the pre-hearing information sheet made available to them.

The PEPC also mentioned the petition by Atiku and PDP against INEC, Tinubu, and the APC marked CA/ PEPC/05/2023, with the PDP represented by its Acting Na­tional Chairman, Amb. Umar Damagun.

The INEC was represented by Mrs. May Agbamuche Mbu, National Commissioner in charge of Legal Services.

Chief Chris Uche (SAN) announced appearance for the petitioners; the 1st respondent, INEC, was represented by Abu­bakar Mahmoud (SAN); Akin Olujimi (SAN) announced le­gal representation for the 2nd respondent (Tinubu), while Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) represented the APC (3rd re­spondent).

Uche told the court that the petitioners filed their pre-hear­ing information sheet on April 27.

He, therefore, adopted and relied on the said pre-hearing information sheet and the an­swers contained therein in the pre-hearing session.

In addition to the answers in the petitioners’ form, Uche in­formed the court that they have a motion filed on May 7, but dat­ed May 5, which has been served on all the respondents and re­quires immediate attention of the court.

“It is an innocuous and harmless application which seeks an order of the court granting our request for live broadcast of proceedings of the PEPC”, Uche stated.

He prayed for hearing of the motion as soon as the main hearing of the petition begins.

On behalf of INEC, Mah­moud said his pre-hearing in­formation sheet dated April 30 was filed on May 2.

He adopted all responses in the pre-hearing information sheet.

On the petitioners’ motion, the INEC lawyer said they will need time to respond to the ap­plication because it was only served on them on Monday.

“We will inform our client and will provide a formal re­sponse to the motion”, Mah­moud said.

Counsel to the 2nd respon­dent, Olujimi, said they filed an­swers to questions contained in the pre-hearing sheet on May 3.

He informed the court that they will be filing a preliminary objection seeking the dismissal of the petition.

More so, Olujimi confirmed that he was served with the mo­tion seeking live broadcast of PEPC proceeding, saying they are taking steps to respond ap­propriately within time allowed by the court.

On his part, Fagbemi, repre­senting APC, said he has also filed his answers on May 2, 2023.

Additionally, “We gave an indication in paragraph 14 of pre-hearing information Form, that we filed two applications, one challenging the competence of the petition, and secondly an ap­plication seeking the striking out of the reply of the petitioners.”

Both applications, Fagbemi said were filed on May 8. Continue Reading>>>

Meanwhile, he adopted and relied on the answers as con­tained in the pre-hearing sheet just as he confirmed receipt of the petitioners “innocuous application” and assured that “you will hear from us within the time allowed by the court”.

After taking submissions of various counsel, Chairman of PEPC, Justice Haruna Tsamma­ni, adjourned further pre-hear­ing to Thursday, May 11.