The Justice Haruna Tsammani-led five-member panel of the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, has dismissed the petition by the Action Alliance, AA, and its presidential candidate, Solomon Okanigbuan.
The court’s decision followed a motion moved by the petitioners’ lawyer, Oba Maduabuchi (SAN), but he did not say why his client was withdrawing it.
Listed as respondents in the petition, marked: CA/PEPC/01/2023 are the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Hamza Al-Mustapha.
Lawyers to the respondents – Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN) for INEC, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) for the APC, Wole Olanipekun (SAN) for Tinubu and Mohammed Sani for Al-Mustapha, did not object to the withdrawal.
Ruling, Justice Tsammani dismissed the petition.
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Justice Tsammani earlier announced that the court would commence its pre-hearing session with three petitions: the one by AA and those by the Action Peoples Party (APP), marked: CA/PEPC/02/2023 and Peter Obi & Labour Party (LP) marked:
He sought the cooperation of all lawyers to enable the court to decide the cases on time.
After the dismissal of AA’s petition, counsel for the petitioners and respondents in the other two petitions – Obed Agwu (for APP), Livy Uzoukwu (SAN) for Obi and LP, Fagbemi, Olanipekun and Mahmoud adopted the separate responses to the pre-hearing questions in respect of the two petitions, which they filed earlier.
Afterwards, the court urged them to meet, and agree on what documents to be tendered, those they plan to object to and those they will allow to be admitted without objection.
The court also ordered them to identify issues for determination in both petitions and file them before the next pre-hearing session.
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It subsequently adjourned till tomorrow at 9 am for the resumption of the pre-hearing session in the petition by the APP, and 2 pm the same day on the petition by Obi and LP.
The court fixed the pre-hearing session on the other two petitions – by Allied Peoples Movement (APM) marked: CA/PEPC/04/2023, and Atiku Abubakar & the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) marked: CA/PEPC/05/2023, for today at 9 am.
Some politicians, including Obi, Plateau State Governor Simon Lalong and Senator Victor Umeh (LP) witnessed yesterday’s sitting.
Stating the reason why they withdrew petition, AA said it withdrew the petition because of the “unity of our nation”.
It said it would not want to be the reason Nigeria will be thrown into another horrific experience similar to June 12, 1993, presidential election crisis.
Chairman of the party, Dr. Adekunle Rufai Omo-Aje, who stated this in a statement in Kaduna, noted that as active democrats in the democratic experiment, AA shall not be used by proponents of the interim government to achieve their concocted agenda of taking over the government through the back door.
