There is heavy security presence at the Court of Appeal Headquarters in Abuja, where the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), is going to deliver judgement on three petitions that are seeking to remove President Bola Tinubu from office.
Heavily armed security agents from the Nigeria Army, Nigeria Police Force, NPF, and the Nigeria Civil Defence and Security Corps, NSCDC, are stationed in all entry points to the court, while men of the Department of State Services, DSS, with long lists, verify identities of everyone entering the premises.
The court had warned that it would only allow accredited persons into its premises, even as it directed its staff members to stay at home.
However, the court said it would permit live broadcast of its judgement on the three petitions.
The Justice Haruna Tsammani-led five-member panel of the court had on August 1, okayed the cases for judgement, after all the parties adopted their final briefs of argument.
The petitions, marked: CA/PEPC/03/2023, CA/PEPC/05/2023 and CA/PEPC/04/2023, were lodged before the court by the candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Mr. Peter Obi; a former Vice President and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar; as well as the Allied Peoples Movement, APM, respectively.
the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had on March 1, announced that Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, won the presidential election that held on February 25, ahead of 17 other candidates that participated in the contest.
It declared that Tinubu scored a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat the two major contenders, Alhaji Atiku of the PDP, who came second with a total of 6,984,520 votes, and Mr. Obi of the LP, who came third with a total of 6,101,533 votes.
Dissatisfied with the outcome of the election, both Atiku and Obi approached the court to invalidate it.
The duo, in their separate petitions, claimed that they won the presidential poll, even as they challenged Tinubu’s eligibility to contest the election.
The petitioners, aside from praying the court to declare that President Tinubu did not secure the majority of lawful votes that were cast at the election, are equally seeking the withdrawal of the Certificate of Return that was issued to him by INEC.
Alternatively, they are praying the court to order a fresh presidential election, with the exclusion of President Tinubu whom they argued was ab-initio, not qualified to participate in the poll.
Vanguard had reported that the Electoral Act 2022 made it mandatory for candidates that were aggrieved by the outcome of the election, to within 21 days after the result was declared by INEC, file a petition before the court which shall deliver its judgement in writing within 180 days.
The court had on July 5, concluded its hearing of both Atiku and Obi’s petitions
While Obi closed his case after he called 13 witnesses that testified and tendered several documentary exhibits, Atiku, produced 27 witnesses and equally tendered exhibits before the court.
On their part, both INEC and President Tinubu wrapped up their defence in both cases with one witness each, while the APC failed to produce any witness before the court.
However, all the Respondents, in their respective written addresses, urged the court to dismiss all the petitions for want of merit.
They argued that the petitioners were unable to discharge the burden of proof that was placed on them by the law.
According to the Respondents, whereas the petitioners raised allegations that had elements of crime in them, they, however, failed to prove them beyond reasonable doubt as required by the law.
President Tinubu urged the court to hold that he was validly returned as winner of the election, by the INEC. (Vanguard)