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The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), Abuja on Tuesday granted Mr. Peter Obi and the Labour Party (LP) three weeks to prove their case challenging the outcome for the 2023 election.
Justice Haruna Tsammani, reading the the trial schedule on behalf of the five-member panel of the tribunal, said trial on Obi’s petition begins on May 30 and ends on June 23.
It will be recalled that the LP legal team had requested for seven weeks to prosecute the case; However, the Court reduced that number to three weeks so as to manage time and meet up with the statutory 180 days as required by the law.
Obi in the petition marked: CA/PEPC/03/2023, is praying the court to nullify the victory of the President-Elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the February 25 Presidential Election for non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.
Justice Tsammani also ruled that all the three petitions before the court will be consolidated to one, in line with Paragraph 50 of the the first schedule of the Electoral Act.
The Paragraph states: “Where two or more petitions are presented in relation to the same election or return, all the petitions shall be consolidated, considered and be dealt with as one petition unless the tribunal or court shall otherwise direct in order to do justice or an objection against one or more of the petitions has been upheld by the tribunal or court.”
Details later…