2023 Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal

Heavy Security As Tribunal Pre-Hearing Begins For Obi, Atiku’s Legal Battles Against INEC, Tinubu

Published

2 years ago

May 8, 2023.

Pre-hearing for Obi and Atiku’s legal battles against INEC and Tinubu has commenced, and the tribunal is under tight security.

EKO HOT BLOG reports that the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal Court in Abuja has been surrounded by over 50 police officers as pre-hearing sessions begin for the legal challenges to the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.

As of the time of filing this report, the courtroom is still locked, with numerous lawyers representing the various parties waiting outside.

EDITOR’S PICKS

The presidential flag bearers of the Labour Party and Peoples Democratic Party, Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar, have replied to all the preliminary objections filed against their petitions challenging Bola Tinubu’s declaration as the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

But Obi’s team, in a letter to the Secretary of the Presidential Election Court dated April 21, asked for the “issuance of pre-hearing notice” in respect of his petition.

The letter was approved by the court, paving the way for pre-hearing sitting.

As seen in the pre-hearing form filled by Obi’s legal team, they seek “Applications for subpoena, objections, enforcement of order of the court not obeyed by INEC and other applications arising in the course of the hearing.”

Other pre-hearing responses and applications entered by all the petitioners and respondents will be heard.

Recall that Obi had, in his petition, accused Tinubu and INEC of alleged corrupt practices or non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.

Obi argued that the electoral umpire altered election results in about 18,000 polling units against him while refusing to use the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System machine mandatory to accredit voters and upload results in real-time in line with the Electoral Act.

But INEC, Tinubu, and his political party, the All Progressives Congress, had countered Obi and Atiku, asking the tribunal to dismiss Obi’s petition for abuse of the court process.