The Presidential Election Petition Court released a pre-hearing report and trial schedule regarding three petitions seeking to overturn the results of the 2023 presidential election.
The court has decided to consolidate all the petitions into one and the hearing will begin on May 30, 2023.
After written arguments are submitted on August 5, 2023, the court will prepare for a verdict.
The chairman of the five-man panel of the court, Justice Haruna Tsammani, read the pre-hearing report, which included the declaration of the court’s decision to consolidate all three surviving petitions to be heard as one.
Three political parties are challenging the declaration of Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Party as the winner of the 2023 presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The petitioners, which were hitherto five, are the Labour Party and its candidate, Peter Obi, the Allied Peoples Movement, which is the sole petitioner in its case; and the Peoples Democratic Party and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
Whereas the INEC left the consolidation decision to the panel, the APC and other respondents in the petition opposed the idea.
However, the five-member panel of the court led by Justice Tsammani, in a unanimous decision on Tuesday, dismissed the objections raised against the merger by the Tinubu, the APC, the vice-president-elect, Kashim Shettima, and Kabir Masari, all respondents in the case.