Former Vice president and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Abubakar Atiku and his counterpart in the Labour Party, LP, Peter Obi are conspicuously absent at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal where judgment in their petitions are to be delivered.
At 9:34 am when the Chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Haruna Tsammani asked for the introduction of petitioners and responders.
Apart from Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed, no notable politician from the PDP is in court.
However, Labour Party was represented by Julius Abure, the national chairman of the party.
The Vice-President, Kashim Shettima introduced himself as the first responder, alongside the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Abdullahi Ganduje.
The reasons for their absence could not be immediately ascertained as Atiku’s media director, Mr Paul Ibe did not respond to phone calls put across to him.
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Wednesday’s judgment will be delivered by the Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Haruna Tsammani, assisted by other members of the panel: Justices Stephen Adah, Monsurat Bolaji-Yusuf, Moses Ugo, and Abba Mohammed.
The petitions, marked: CA/PEPC/03/2023, CA/PEPC/05/2023 and CA/PEPC/04/2023, were lodged before the court by the candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Mr. Peter Obi; a former Vice President and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar; as well as the Allied Peoples Movement, APM, respectively.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had on March 1, announced that Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress won the presidential election held on February 25, ahead of 17 other candidates that participated in the contest.
It declared that Tinubu scored a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat the two major contenders, Alhaji Atiku of the PDP, who came second with a total of 6,984,520 votes, and Mr. Obi of the LP, who came third with a total of 6,101,533 votes.
Dissatisfied with the outcome of the election, both Atiku and Obi approached the court to have it invalidated.