Atiku, Obi to know fate as presidential tribunal fixes Sept 6 for judgment

The presidential election tribunal has fixed September 6 to deliver judgment on the petitions challenging the election of Bola Tinubu.

Umar Bangari, registrar of the court of appeal, confirmed the date on Monday.

Tinubu secured 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who got 6,984,520, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) who polled 6,101,533 votes.

Not satisfied with the outcome, five political parties including the PDP, LP, Action Peoples Party (APP), Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and the Action Alliance (AA) lodged separate petitions before the tribunal seeking to annul Tinubu’s victory.

Shortly after the commencement of the pre-hearing session in May, the APP and AA withdrew their petitions.

Among several issues, the petitioners contended that Tinubu and Kashim Shettima, the vice-president, were not eligible to contest the presidential poll.

They claimed that the president was indicted for drug trafficking in the United States, that his academic certificates submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were forged, and that Tinubu is a citizen of Guinea.

The petitioners also submitted that since Tinubu failed to secure 25 percent of votes cast in the federal capital territory (FCT) he should not have been declared winner of the February 25 election.

On August 1, a five-member panel of the tribunal reserved judgment after hearing the final written addresses from counsels to Atiku and Obi.

LIVE TELEVISION BROADCAST

In a statement notifying the public of the judgment, the chief registrar said live broadcast will be allowed for transparency.

“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:

“• CAREPC/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 into the Courtroom.

“Interested members of the public are advised to watch proceedings from their television sets.”