Security is tight today around the court premises as the presidential election petitions tribunal begin the pre-hearing of the petitions challenging the outcome of the February 25 presidential election.
According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) polled 8,794,726 votes to win the election.
Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came second with 6,984,520 votes, and Labour Party’s (LP) Peter Obi was third with 6,101,533 votes.
The opposition candidates who are dissatisfied with the outcome, Atiku and Obi, had approached the presidential election petitions tribunal to annul Tinubu’s victory.
Read also: Obi arrives tribunal as Action Alliance withdraws petition against INEC, Tinubu
According to Channels Television, there is large presence of men of the Nigeria Police. They cordoned off the road leading to the court.
From the Cause list, the unveiling of the tribunal, the first case to be adjudicated, is the Action Alliance (AA) and its presidential candidate in the election, Solomon David Okanigbuan, notifying the tribunal of their intentions to withdraw their petition against the declaration of Tinubu as Nigeria’s President-elect after the unveiling of the tribunal.
Besides Tinubu, others listed as respondents in AA’s petition are the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), All Progressives Congress (APC) and Hamza Al Mustapha.
Other petitions slated for the pre-hearing session are those of the Action People’s Party (APP) which has Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as three respondents.
It would be followed by that of Peter Obi and the LP marked CA/PEPC/03/2023 with INEC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Kashim Shetima and APC as four respondents.
