Richard Anyebe
The Presidential Election Petitions Court says it will hear the petitions challenging the declaration of Bola Tinubu as President-elect on May 8.
Tinubu’s legal team said Monday’s hearing is a pre-hearing session.
The hearing, according to reports, is to clarify if there are any applications before the main hearing will start. The timetable will be set for the hearing of the substantive matters.
The court also stopped receiving replies from the petitioners on April 23.
Recall that Nigeria’s electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had on March 1 declared Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the President-Elect because his party scored the majority of votes cast in the polls.
According to INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, Tinubu polled 8.8 million to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 6.9 million, Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) who amassed 6.1 million, and 15 others.
But Atiku and Obi disputed the results and filed separate petitions seeking orders to annul the election or declare them the winners of the polls.
Atiku, who is a former vice president of Nigeria anchored his seven prayers on five grounds. He also asked the Presidential Election Tribunal to declare him the president-elect.
In the alternative, Atiku prayed to the court to cancel the presidential poll and order a fresh election due to alleged irregularities that marred the elections in several polling units.
In their petition, Atiku and the PDP argued that as of March 1 when Tinubu was declared the winner of the election, the entire results and accreditation data from polling units had not been transmitted and uploaded by INEC.
Obi, who came third in the election, alleged that the election was characterised by various irregularities including the non-qualification of Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima to contest the election.
He also alleged that Tinubu failed to win the majority of the lawful votes cast in the election, and just as he could not secure one-quarter of the lawful votes cast in the FCT.
Meanwhile, Kanyi Daily reported that President-Elect, Bola Tinubu has expressed appreciation to Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike for his contribution to his victory at the February 25th presidential election.
Tinubu appreciated Wike on Wednesday when he inaugurated the Rumuokwuta/Rumuola Road Flyover in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
