Presidential Election Petition Court has adjourned the pre-hearing of the petition by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, challenging the declaration of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressive Congress (APC) as the President-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The petition marked CA/PEPC/05/2023 has been postponed to Thursday, May 11, 2023, for further hearing.

Chris Uche SAN, counsel for the petitioners, filed a motion dated 7th May requesting a live broadcast of the presidential tribunal proceeding.

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He urged the court to give immediate attention to the motion of priority due to the national importance of the issue at hand.

Counsel for INEC, A.B Mahmoud, acknowledged the application, while the counsel for the 2nd respondent, Lateef Fagbemi, said they received the application and are taking steps to respond appropriately.

Uche SAN agreed to accept service in the open court in the spirit of cooperation, but Fagbemi objected to his claim, stating that the motion was not filed in the open court.

The 66-page petition, filed against Tinubu by Atiku and his party, claims that the entire results and accreditation data from polling units had not been transmitted and uploaded by INEC as of March 1 when Tinubu was declared the winner of the election.

The petitioners argued that despite the failure to transmit the data and several complaints for review, INEC’s chairman refused all entreaties and applications for the suspension of the collation exercise and a review of the complaints before declaring a winner of the election, and dared the petitioners to go to court.

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Justice Tsammani asked parties to settle all issues for objections and determination, adding that the application for a live broadcast of the proceeding “will be considered together with the other issues.”

The adjournment gives the parties more time to resolve all issues and prepare for the hearing.