Legal fireworks is set to begin on May 8 in the petitions filed by the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP), Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi respectively against the victory of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmood Yakubu, declared Tinubu as President-elect on March 1, after the election held on February 25
Atiku and Obi have since kicked against the declaration.
The President-elect is billed to be sworn-in on May 29, 2023.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) National Legal Adviser, Ahmad El-Marzuq, confirmed the date on Wednesday.
According to El-Marzuq, the APC legal team has been briefed and is ready to defend the party’s mandate.
“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,’’ El-Marzuq stated in response to a question about the time it would take for the petitions to be decided.
Tinubu polled 8.8 million votes to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 6.9 million, Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), who amassed 6.1 million and 15 others.
Atiku and Obi filed separate challenges disputing the results, requesting that the election be declared invalid or that they be recognised as the winners.
The PDP presidential candidate requested that the Presidential Election Tribunal proclaim him the winner on five different grounds in his seven pleas.
Alternatively, Atiku petitioned the court to declare a new election necessary in light of purported anomalies that disrupted the voting process on February 25 in tens of thousands of polling places.
Atiku and the PDP claimed in their petition that INEC had not transmitted and posted all of the election results and accreditation data from polling places as of March 1, when Tinubu was proclaimed the victor.
Obi, who came third in the election, alleged that the election was characterised by various irregularities including the non-qualification of Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima to contest the election.
He also alleged that Tinubu failed to win the majority of the lawful votes cast in the election, and just as he could not secure one-quarter of the lawful votes cast in the FCT.