The secretary of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, Barrister Josephine J. Ekperobe, has announced Wednesday, September 6, 2023, as the day of the delivery of judgement.
Both Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar are contesting INEC’s announcement of APC’s Bola Tinubu as president, claiming that the election was marred by corruption and that Tinubu was not qualified to run.
The presidential election petition tribunal reserved its decision after the petitioners, the Peoples Democratic Party and its standard bearers, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, and the Labour Party, closed their cases in June after calling 40 of the 150 witnesses listed in their petitions challenging the All Progressives Congress and the President’s victory.
While Tinubu’s lawyer prayed for a successful outcome, Atiku’s legal team admonished the tribunal to “shun executive intimidation and dispense judgement on the matter.’’
Yusuf Ali, SAN, a member of the president’s legal team, said he was hopeful of victory.
He said, “We pray for success at the end of the day. Cases are conducted in court and not in the media, either social or mass media. The court listens to facts and applies the law.”
Earlier, the Director of Publicity for the APC, Bala Ibrahim, denied that the ruling party was under any form of pressure and expressed confidence that justice would be served.
He said, “Which pressure? The ruling party has already delivered, unlike the Labour Party, which is still groaning. The pressure is on them. Obviously, anyone who is in labour is likely to be under pressure.’
In the same vein, the National Legal Adviser of the Labour Party, Kehinde Edun, submitted that the party was hopeful about the outcome of the judgement.
“We are confident and hopeful about the outcome. The party has done everything it ought to do. That’s why we are optimistic. We believe strongly in the judiciary. It is the only way our country can remain strong. When you lose hope, then it is over. It means you are now calling for anarchy. LP has come too far to lose hope at this stage. We have to continue to hope and believe they do the right thing,” the lawyer noted.
When contacted, Dr. Sunday Solarin, secretary of the Ogun State PDP, stated that the party expected the tribunal to be fair.
He said, “The PDP is expecting justice to be done to the petition brought to the tribunal. We have done all that is expected of us to do; we have confronted the tribunal with adequate evidence, and we have argued properly.’’
