Presidential Tribunal: Atiku, Obi’s Quest to Remove Tinubu Begins Monday, May 8

• Details have emerged on the modalities of the first day of the presidential election petition tribunal
• Aggrieved parties will battle with the defendant to challenge the outcome of the 2023 presidential poll
• It has been confirmed that the first day will comprise pre-trial activities, including witness presentation and admitting documents

FCT, Abuja - The much-anticipated presidential election petition tribunal will commence its pre-hearing proceedings today, Monday, May 8.

The presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and the Labour Party, Peter Obi, will challenge the emergence of the All Progressives Congress (APC)'s candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the president-elect.

It will be recalled that after the completion of the result collation of the February 25 presidential polls, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Tinubu president-elect after polling 8,794,726 votes.

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His counterpart in the PDP came behind him with 6,984,520 votes, while the Labour Party candidate finished third with 6,101,533 votes.

However, the latter (Atiku and Obi) rejected the election outcome by proceeding to court and filing a series of suits against INEC and Tinubu.

As reported by Punch, one of Tinubu's legal attorneys disclosed that today's hearing would be for the official commencement of the tribunal, which will include the presentation of witnesses, admitting documents and the like. The attorney described it as a pre-trial.

The attorney said:

“The only thing they will do is to schedule the hearing, the number of witnesses, how many minutes the witness will use, and how to admit the documents; that’s what they call pre-trial."

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It was further gathered that a timetable would be drafted for the hearing of the cases, which would stipulate the number of days that would be used during the tribunal.

Other activities to be undertaken at the pre-trial, according to the attorney, include:

“... how do we take in the documents, certified true copy of the documents, are they going to be admitted like that or if there is an objection, how do we raise an objection to document?"

All eyes would be on the juror as Atiku has petitioned the tribunal for a fresh election while Obi is seeking the nullification of Tinubu's election.

Presidential Tribunal: Atiku, PDP apply for live telecast of court proceedings

Meanwhile, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has applied for the live telecast of the presidential tribunal.

Atiku says it was necessary because the issue in court is a national priority and must not elude the electorates who participated in the elections.

He also prayed to the tribunal to withdraw the certificate of return of the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Source: Legit.ng