The news many Nigerians are waiting for is here. The Presidential Election Petitions Court has revealed when it will hear the petitions against the victory of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last presidential election.
Specifically, the Tribunal fixed Monday, May 8 for the hearing of the petitions challenging the victory of the president-elect.
Politics Nigeria reports that the date was confirmed by the National Legal Adviser of the All Progressives Congress, Ahmad El-Marzuq
He said the APC legal team had been briefed and was ready to defend the party’s mandate.
He said:
“We have been briefed about the hearing coming up next week. But who told you the election petitions at the tribunal must necessarily be concluded before May 29?
“Are you saying if they were not concluded before President Buhari leaves office, the government should be left in a vacuum and the president-elect should not be sworn in? It is not a must,’’ he stated in response to a question about the time it would take for the petitions to be decided.
Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had on March 1 declared Tinubu the president-elect on the grounds that his party scored the majority of votes cast in the polls.
The former Lagos state governor had polled 8.8 million to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party who scored 6.9mn, Peter Obi of the Labour Party who amassed 6.1mn and 15 others.
However, both Obi and Atiku rejected the outcome and procedded to the court to challenge it.
