PEPT pre-hearing closes, Obi, Atiku petitions consolidated, as full trial commences, May 30

After nearly three weeks of pre-hearing at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT) sitting at the Court of Appeal headquarters in Abuja, full trial in the petitions filed by three political parties challenging the declaration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate as president-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is expected to commence in earnest, Tuesday, May 30.

The follows the ruling by the Judges panel of the PEPT allowing for consolidation of evidence and witnesses to be presented by petitioners at the court, despite the protest by counsels to the four respondents; including INEC, APC, Tinubu and Kashim Shettima (Tinubu’s vice presidential candidate).

 Tuesday’s proceedings also concluded with petitioners having 3 weeks to present their case as opposed to the 7 weeks earlier requested by the Labour Party.

Under the new schedule, it is expected that court proceeding will continue till end of August, this year.

The PEPT in Abuja had Tuesday, ordered the consolidation of the petitions of the PDP, Labour Party (LP), and the Allied People’s Movement (APM) challenging the declaration by INEC of Tinubu as president-elect in the February 25 election.

According to Presiding Justice of the five member panel, Justice Haruna Tsammani, who had earlier Saturday, drawn the attention of the three petitioners to Paragraph 50 of the Electoral Act Amended, which says that where petitioners are more than one, the petitions will be treated as one, including witnesses and evidence.

The announcement forced the adjournment of Saturday’s pre-hearing as petitioners opted to go and deliberate among themselves on the rule, despite protests by counsels to the second and third respondents (APC and Tinubu), who had agreed to the Electoral Act rule, as pointed by Justice Tsammani.

Justice Haruna Tsammani said that the consolidation which is aimed at a speedy hearing of the petitions of predicated on the grounds that the issues raised by the parties are similar.

Accordingly, the court held that hearing in the petitions would commence from May 30.

Although five political parties had initially registered their grievances against the declaration of Tinubu as winner of the presidential election however the Action Alliance (AA) and the Action People’s Party (APP) had at the opening of pre-trial withdrew their petitions against Tinubu remaining the LP, APM and PDP.

The three remaining petitioners anchored their petitions on grounds such as irregularities, substantial non-compliance as well as corrupt practices etc, upon which they are asking the court to set aside the declaration of Tinubu as winner of the election.

Besides, while the petitioners are seeking the disqualification of Tinubu over alleged perjury and drug related offences, the APM is particularly urging the court to hold that the “place holder” introduced by Tinubu in respect of his Vice President nominee was unknown to law and as such the court should void the participation of the APC, Tinubu and his Vice President-elect, Senator Kashim Shettima in the February 25 presidential election.

In addition, both LP and PDP are faulting INEC’s return of Tinubu on the grounds that Tinubu did not score 25 per cent of lawful votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

At Tuesday’s last pre-hearing, agreement on the timeline for proceedings was also reached, which are as follows:

Hearing shall commence Tuesday 30th May

Trial schedule commences 30th May- 23rd June 2023, For petitioner (3weeks)

June 24–June 29 (1st respondent/INEC)

July 6 to July 10 (4th respondent/Shettima)

Respondent address shall be on July 21

Petitioner address on July 29

Adoption of addresses – August 5

The Justices while reiterating that the timeline will surely be upheld by the court, also maintained that the timeframe will be maintained and not exceeded, adding also that the dates for addresses may include Saturdays.

The three weeks of proceeding will therefore commence from May 30.

It was also announced that the PEPT will sit on any day of the week, including Sundays.

In summary, the pre-hearing proceedings saw some highpoints and decisions reached, including the following:

There will be a total of 83 witnesses from all parties.

No additional parties were joined during pre-hearing; No extension of pre hearing period

There shall be no out of court settlement

11 Interlocutory and 2 ex parte applications were made by parties respectively

No live streaming of court proceedings

Petitions by Obi and Atiku will be consolidated

No pre-hearing extension

Star witnesses will have 30 minutes for cross examination and 20 minutes of examination in chief and  cross examination

On issue of interpreters; second and third respondents indicated the need for interpreters to translate to Hausa

All parties will call expert witnesses

All parties stated that they cannot be assisted by tribunal without pre hearing.