The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abuja this Tuesday afternoon, May 9, 2023, adjourned the petition of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its Presdiential Candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, against the declaration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as President-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The presiding justice, Justice Haruna Tsammani, announced the adjournment of the hearing of the petition to Thursday, May 11. This followed the fresh motions brought by Tinubu’s legal team seeking to dismiss Atiku’s petition at pre-hearing stage. The panel said that the motions would be entertained on the adjourned date.

Tinubu’s lead counsel, Chief Akin Olujimi (SAN), referred to the motions when asked whether the team had responded to the pre-hearing questions in Form TF 008 contained in Atiku’s petition.

He said replied in the affirmative but added that they had brought motions to ask for the dismissal of the petitions.

The tribunal will also rule on Atiku’s earlier motion for live broadcast of the proceedings on Thursday.

The tribunal had resumed pre-hearing of Atiku’s petition after going on break following the adjournment of the petition against Tinubu by the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) to Thursday May 11 to enable parties look at the applications and pre-hearing issues they would be objecting to and those they won’t be.

News Express reports that one of the highlights at the kickoff of the tribunal yesterday was the dismissal of the petition filed by Action Alliance against the victory of Tinubu. The petition was dismissed after its withdrawal by the party.

The five-member panel had during its inaugural sitting on Monday adjourned pre-hearing in the petitions filed by the Action Peoples Party (APP) and Labour Party until tomorrow, Wednesday.

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