The Supreme Court on Thursday fixed Monday, October 23, for judgment in the appeal filed by Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, to challenge the verdict of the Presidential Tribunal, which affirmed the victory of President Bola Tinubu.
In Atiku’s appeal before the apex court in the land, he filed a 35-ground notice of appeal, stating that the tribunal in the judgment delivered by Justice Haruna Tsammani “committed a grave error.”
The Notice of Appeal filed by Atiku’s lead counsel, Chris Uche, SAN, prayed the Supreme Court to set aside the whole findings and conclusions of the Tribunal on the grounds that they “did not represent the true picture of the grounds of his petition.”
Also, the Supreme Court has named a seven-member panel of justices to hear the appeal in the petitions filed by three presidential candidates challenging the outcome of the February 25 election.
The notices for the hearing were served on the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar; that of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Chichi Ojei.
The notices signed by Zainab M. Garba in the office of the registrar, said by the Order 2 Rule 1(2) of the Supreme Court’s Rules 1985 as amended, the notice is deemed as sufficiently served on the parties.
The list of members of the panel to sit on the appeals include justices Musa Dattijo Muhammad, Uwani Musa Abba Aji, Lawal Garba, Helen M. Ogunwumiju, I.N. Saulawa, Tijjani Abubakar and Emmanuel Agim.
On his part, Obi is contending that the tribunal’s refusal of his 18,088 polling units’ blurred results, was a miscarriage of justice.
Ojei of the APM, in her petition, is contending that Tinubu and his deputy, Kashim Shettima were disqualified on the grounds of invalid nomination for the offices.
Mr Tinubu, through his counsel, Wole Olanipekun (SAN) has requested the court to hold that Atiku’s petition was an abuse of court process and lacked merit.
