Obi, Atiku, others to present petitions in 3 weeks

•as court consolidates petitions

By Vivian Okejeme Abuja

The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) has ordered the Presidential candidates of the Labour Party (LP) Mr Peter Gregory Obi, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to present their joint petition against Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu’s February 25 presidential election victory, within three weeks.
On Obi and LP petitions, the court ordered the Respondents, Bola Tinubu and the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) to defend the petition against them within five days.
On the part of Respondents in Atiku’s petition, the 1st Respondent (INEC) has two days to present it’s defense, 2nd Respondent (Tinubu) has five days, while 3rd Respondent(APC) also has five days to present it’s defence.
Meanwhile, the Court has discountenance Tinubu and APC’s objection for the consolidation of the applications, adding that the consolidation of the petition is necessary so as to ensure expeditious hearing.
The five-man panel of the court led by its Chairman, Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani issued the order on Tuesday, adding that it arrived at the decision because of the limited time within which the petition must be disposed off.
Further breakdown ordered that the Petitioners are to present thier matter from 30the May to June 23rd. INEC has two days, from 21st June to June 28 to present thier defense, Tinubu has five days, from June 29 to July 6, while APC has five day, from July seven to July 16.
Concluding, the court held that all evidences will be closed by July 16.
Recall that the petitioners are in court challenging the Tinubu’s election on grounds such as irregularities, substantial non-compliance as well as corrupt practices etc, upon which they are asking the court to set aside the declaration of Tinubu as winner of the election.
Both parties are faulting INEC’s return of Tinubu on the grounds that Tinubu did not score 25% of lawful votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Also, yesterday, Tinubu and APC has disclosed their intention not to speak with the media any further on the court proceedings.
A lawyer in Tinubu and the APC’s team, Chief Niyi Akintola SAN, informed the court that “we have agreed on this side that no lawyer will speak with the press on the proceedings”.
Akintola said that, it was the decision of the team that any lawyer that flaunt the ban, no matter his rank or how highly placed, would be kicked out of the defense team.
He, however, did not disclosed any reason on why the ban was adopted.