Nigeria’s Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC) constituted by Appeal Court Justices, has fixed Monday for the hearing of the petitions challenging the declaration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) standard bearer, Bola Tinubu as the president-elect.
With this development, the expected legal battle by candidates disputing the outcome of the 2023 presidential election will commence from May 8.
National Legal Adviser of the All Progressives Congress, Ahmad El-Marzuq, confirmed the date on Tuesday, according to Punch.
He said the APC legal team had been briefed and was ready to defend the party’s mandate.
“We have been briefed about the hearing coming up next week. But who told you the election petitions at the tribunal must necessarily be concluded before May 29?
“Are you saying if they were not concluded before President Buhari leaves office, the government should be left in a vacuum and the president-elect should not be sworn in? It is not a must,” he stated in response to a question about the time it would take for the petitions to be decided.
Also, a top official of the election petitions tribunal affirmed that the hearing proceedings would start on Monday.
Not satisfied with the result, Atiku and Obi filed separate petitions seeking orders to annul the election or declare them the winners of the polls.
Also, a faction of the Action Alliance (AA) is seeking the tribunal’s order to nullify Tinubu’s victory as the president-elect and hinged their petition on INEC’s failure to upload the name of its candidate, Solomon-David Okanigbuan – to its portal for the February election.
In its petition marked CA/PEPC/04/2023, the Alliance People’s Movement in a petition contended that the president-elect was not qualified to run for office.