The pre-hearing session for the Labour Party’s petition, filed by Peter Obi, to nullify Tinubu’s election victory, has been adjourned by the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja until Wednesday.
The court has also set the same date for the hearing of another petition by the Action Peoples Party (APP). Meanwhile, the case of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has been adjourned until Tuesday.
The court advised all parties involved to identify their witness statements and documents that they will rely on or object to during the actual hearing of the petitions.
Several individuals were present in court to witness the proceedings, including Mr. Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party. In a related development, the Court, on Monday, barred Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State from standing before it as the representative of President-elect Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
The Plateau State governor had immediately announced himself as Tinubu’s representative when the first petition challenging the outcome of the 2023 presidential election was called up. “My Lord, my name is Simon Lalong, and I am here to represent Tinubu,” the governor declared.
However, Justice Haruna Tsammani, leading a five-member panel, declined to recognise him as Tinubu’s representative. The presiding judge asserted that an individual could not be represented in court. “Tinubu is not a corporation that would need a representative,” the judge held. Governor Lalong then responded, saying, “My Lords, in that case, I will represent the All Progressives Congress, APC.”
