By Promise Eze
Monday, May 8th has been fixed as the commencement date for the hearing of petitions against the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, by the Presidential Election Petitions Court.
The court is expected to hear petitions challenging Tinubu’s victory in the 2023 presidential poll.
The National Legal Adviser of the APC, Ahmad El-Marzuq, confirmed the hearing date to journalists on Tuesday. El-Marzuq stated that the APC legal team 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?” he said, responding to a question about the time it would take for the petitions to be decided. “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.”
A top official of the election petitions tribunal, who spoke on condition of anonymity, affirmed that the hearing proceedings would start on Monday.
“The Presidential election tribunal has fixed Monday, May 8th as for the hearing of the petitions challenging the victory of the President-elect, Bola Tinubu,” the official said.
Tayo Oyetibo SAN, a member of Tinubu’s legal team, confirmed the hearing, saying, “Yes, the hearing is on Monday, but it’s for a pre-hearing session. The hearing 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.”
According to findings, the court stopped receiving replies from the petitioners on April 23.
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Mahmood Yakubu, had on March 1 declared Tinubu the president-elect on the grounds that his party scored the majority of votes cast in the polls.
Tinubu had polled 8.8 million to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, who scored 6.9 million , Peter Obi of the Labour Party, who amassed 6.1million, and 15 others.
