The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) has fixed June 19 to commence hearing of the petition filed by the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) against the election victory of President Bola Tinubu.
APM had applied to the tribunal for a date to commence hearing of its petition against the results of the February 25 presidential election which had earlier been delayed over the inability to obtain a Supreme Court judgement.
The apex court’s ruling being sought was the recent judgement which dismissed the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) suit which sought to nullify President Tinubu’s election based on allegations of double nomination against his running mate, now Vice-President Kashim Shettima.
The ruling was necessary for progress in APM’s case because it had far-reaching pronouncements which are relevant to certain core issues of dispute in its case.
The party’s lead counsel, Yakubu Maikyau, had personally applied for an adjournment of hearing to enable the team obtain and assess the impact of the Supreme Court’s ruling on their case. The court granted the relief but efforts to obtain the certified true copy of the judgement have been unsuccessful.
Senior counsel for the All Progressives Congress (APC), L.O. Fagbemi, also agreed that efforts to obtain the judgement in question has proved abortive hence the need to proceed with setting a date for the hearing of the case.
The presiding judge, Haruna Tsammani after listening to both sides granted the relief and adjourned the case to Monday, June 19, for commencement of hearing.