The Presidential Election Petition Court has finally consolidated the three petitions filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party (LP), and the Allied Peoples’ Movement (APM), and their presidential candidates against the conduct and outcome of the 25th of February election which was reportedly won by Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Party (APC).
Africa Today News, New York gathered that the decision was against the wishes of both the president-elect and the ruling APC who had raised objections against the merger of the petitions.
After the ruling, the court announced that trial in the consolidated petitions will commence on May 30 with the calling of witnesses by the petitioners.
The Justice Haruna Tsammani led five-member panel made this known, on Tuesday while presenting the court pre-hearing report.
All three parties are challenging the outcome of the February 25 presidential election, in which the APC candidate, Bola Tinubu, was declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
It is the common relief of the petitioners – Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, and APM that Tinubu’s victory be nullified by the court given the alleged wide spread malpractices during the conduct of thepresidential election.
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They equally accused the electoral body of manipulating the election in favour of Tinubu and APC.
Justice Tsammani in his ruling, relied on the provisions of paragraph 50 of the First Schedule of the Electoral Act 2022 to arrived at its decision.
In addition, Justice Tsammani said the consolidation was done in the interest of justice.
“The justice of these petitions demands that this petition be consolidated,” he said.
Meanwhile, the court has ordered Obi and his party to prove their case within three weeks instead of the six weeks they requested during the pre-hearing sessions.
Thereafter, the court fixed May 30 for Obi to open his case in the substantive petition and to conclude on June 23.
The court added that it would conduct proceedings on a day-to-day basis from Mondays to Saturdays.
For the respondents in the petition – INEC, APC, Tainubu and Kashim Shettima, the vice-president-elect – they have five days each to present their defence.
On allotment of time, the petitioners have 30 minutes each to lead or cross-examine their or adverse parties’ star witnesses. The other witnesses have 20 minutes each to testify and the legal team of the adverse parties will have five minutes each for re-examining them.
Obi had through his lawyer, Livy Uzoukwu (SAN) filed his petition challenging Tinubu’s victory on 20 March – 20 days after Tinubu was declared winner of the polls by INEC.
On his part, former Vice President and candidate of PDP, Atiku Abubakar, was given the three weeks he requested to call 100 witnesses to prove his petition against Tinubu.