* Say: It’s not soap opera
President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has asked the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) to dismiss the application filed by Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), seeking a live broadcast of its proceedings.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in a counter affidavit filed against the application, made the same submission and asked the court to reject the request.
Tinubu, through his legal team, led by Wole Olanipekun (SAN), describes Atiku’s application as an abuse of the court’s processes, noting that the court is not a soapbox, rostrum, or theatre, where public show should be entertained.
“With much respect to the petitioners, the motion is an abuse of the processes of this honourable court,” he said.
The team of lawyers stated in the counter-affidavit that the application relates to the policy formulation of the court, which is outside the PEPC’s jurisdiction as constituted.
“The application also touches on the powers and jurisdiction invested in the President of the Court of Appeal by the Constitution, over which this honourable court, as presently constituted, cannot entertain,” they said.
They also argued that the application is aimed at dissipating the judicial time of the court, noting that the application does not have any bearing on the petition filed by the petitioners.
Tinubu’s respondents criticised the applicants’ reference to the fact that virtual proceedings were permitted during the COVID-19 pandemic in an attached written address.
They also argued that Atiku and the PDP failed to draw the court’s attention to the fact that practice directions for the exercise had been issued by the respective courts.
“Another angle to this very curious application is the invitation it extends to the court to make an order that it cannot supervise.
“The position of the law remains, and we do submit that the court, like nature, does not make an order in vain or an order which is incapable of enforcement,” he averred.
According to the legal teams, the application is academic, otiose, unnecessary, time-wasting, most unusual, and most unexpected, especially coming from a group of petitioners, who should be praying for an expeditious trial of their petition.
“Beyond all these, it is our submission that the court of law must and should always remain what it is, what it should be, and what it is expected to be: a serene, disciplined, hallowed, tranquil, honourable, and decorous institution and place,” they added.