Presidential Tribunal denies fixing September 6 as judgement date on Obi, Atiku’s petition against Tinubu

Many news medium reported on Monday that PEPC will “deliver judgement on Election Petition filed by Peter Obi of Labour party and Abubakar Atiku against Bola Tinubu on Wednesday, September 6th in Abuja.

But when contacted, the Secretary of the PEPC panel, Barrister Josephine J. Ekperobe refuted the report, saying “No date yet please”.

The PEPC’s five-man panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani was inaugurated to preside over petitions challenging the outcome of the presidential election declared in favour of President Tinubu by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

All the petitioners, Peter Obi, Atiku Abubakar and the Allied Peoples Movement APM; alongside the defendants (INEC, Tinubu, Kashim Shettima and others) have closed their cases after presenting witnesses and tendering evidence to support their respective submissions.

Obi’s legal team alleged that INEC connived with Tinubu to blur his additional 2.5 million votes that would have put him as the winner of the polls.

Atiku had claimed that INEC did not comply with its guidelines when the INEC Results Viewing Portal IRev portal failed to upload election results in real-time from polling units, thereby allegedly paving way for rigging.

Also, Obi and Atiku asked the PEPC to cancel Tinubu’s election victory for not securing 25 per cent of votes in FCT.

The defendants also filed and argued their final written addresses asking the court to throw out all the petitions challenging the election of Tinubu for lacking in merit.

INEC maintained that the petitioners failed to provide the party agents’ polling results to counter what was already announced by INEC Chairman, Yakubu Mahmood.

The PEPC had adjourned, saying it would communicate the date for judgment to “parties”.

The judgment on the petitions will come on or before September 17, in line with the 6 months timeline constitutionally stipulated by law for the panel to conclude the case.