The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal is set to begin sitting on May 8, 2023 for the hearing of the petitions by Peter Obi and the Labour Party and Atiku Abubakar and the Peoples Democratic Party challenging the declaration of the Bola Tinubu as the President-Elect, in the just concluded February 25, Presidential Election.
The date for hearing of petitions was confirmed to ait.live by the Tribunal registry on Wednesday.
According to the registry, the hearing is to clarify if there are any applications before the main hearing will start as a timetable will be set for the hearing of the substantive matters.
The election petition tribunal also stopped receiving replies from the petitioners on April 23.
The PDP and its Presidential Candidate is asking the tribunal to cancel the February 25, Presidential election and order a fresh election due to alleged irregularities that marred the elections in thousands of polling units.
The Presidential Candidate of the labour party Peter Obi, who came third in the election, in his petition is also alleging that the election was characterised by various irregularities including the non-qualification of Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima to contest the election.
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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.
He had polled 8.8 million votes to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party who scored 6.9 million, Peter Obi of the Labour Party who amassed 6.1 million and 15 others.
The All Progressives Congress, APC has also asked the Presidential Election Petition tribunal to dismiss the petitions filed by Atiku and PDP challenging the return of its candidate, Bola Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential election.
(Editor: Paul Akhagbemhe)
