Tribunal consolidates petitions by Atiku, Peter Obi, overrules Tinubu, APC

The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) sitting in Abuja, has dismissed objections the President-elect, Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) raised against the consolidation of the three different petitions seeking to nullify the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.

In Tuesday’s sitting, a five-member panel of the court led by Justice Haruna Tsammani, held that Justice of the cases demanded that they should be consolidated and dealt with as one petition since they all relate to the same election.

The court slated May 30 for Peter Obi of Labour Party (LP) to open his case against the outcome of the February 25 presidential election.

Obi had earlier said he would need seven weeks to present his case through 50 witnesses.

Reacting to Obi’s request, the court reduced the period to three weeks, even as it gave the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) Tinubu and the Vice President-elect, Senator Kashim Shettima, five days each to defend the petition.

Also, the court gave the 4th respondent in the case, Kabiru Masari, three days to also defend himself.

The court stressed that the parties would adopt final briefs of argument on August 5 to enable it to fix a date for judgment.

Aside the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and LP, the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) also lodged a petition to challenge the outcome of the presidential election.

Though five petitions were initially filed to challenge the return of Tinubu as winner of the election, however, the Action Alliance (AA) on withdrew its case on May 8 even as the Action Peoples Party (APP) did the same two days later.