By Abimbola Ogunnaike
The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal has consolidated all the petitions filed by the three petitioners, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), and the Allied Peoples’ Movement (APM), and their presidential candidates.
The Chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Haruna Tsamani, stated this on Tuesday, 23 May, 2023 while presenting the court pre-hearing report.
All three parties are challenging the outcome of the February 25 presidential election, in which the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes, while PDP’s Atiku Abubakar scored Abubakar 6,984,520 votes and his Labour Party (LP) counterpart, Peter Obi, finished with a tally of 6,101,533.
The Tribunal, in Tuesday, 23 May, 2023, proceeding at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, said the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, had three weeks to prove their case.
To ensure a speedy hearing of the Labour Party’s petition, there will be no oral examination of witnesses as what will be required is the adoption of witness statements.
For a star (or expert) witness, 30 minutes shall be used for evidence in chief while 20 minutes will be for cross-examination and 5 minutes for re-examination.
Peter Obi’s hearing is to commence on May 30 and end June 23.
