PEPT Reserves Judgment for September 16

The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT) may have finally fixed Saturday, September 16 as date for the much-awaited judgement on the petitions challenging the pronouncement of Bola Tinubu as winner of the February 25 presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

This is coming four weeks after the Tribunal reserved judgement.

A source disclosed to TheNiche early Monday morning that the five-member tribunal which sat at the Court of Appeal complex in Abuja from May 8 to August 1, has set September 16 as the judgment date.

Incidentally, that date is the deadline for the tribunal to deliver its judgment.

The Justice Haruna Simon Tsamani-led tribunal is expected to deliver judgement on the three petitions lodged by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party (LP) and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) together with their presidential candidates, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Peter Obi and the Delta-born Princess Chichi Ojei respectively.

The defendants in the cases are Tinubu, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The Tribunal is yet to make an official statement after it reserved judgement.

But the announcement is bound to ratchet up the tension in the country as all eyes remain fixed on the judiciary.

On August 17, a diaspora group, The Diaspora Action for Democracy in Africa (DADA), cautioned the PEPT not to deliver judgement that will set the country ablaze.

The group said, “The Judiciary is the only institution that has all it takes to save this country from the threat of implosion. All eyes have been on the judiciary because of Nigeria’s respect for the rule of law. It does not mean that the members of the Presidential Election Tribunal are in a better position in this case to tell Nigerians the person who won the presidential election.

“Nigerians do not wait for any court to tell them the winner of any election. It is the electorate that should tell the court so because they know more than the court whom they voted to be their President. But since it is the prerogative of the court to ensure that truth and justice prevail each time they are disputed, to make room for peace and harmony, the court has been given enough evidence to prove the real winner of the 2023 presidential election.

“Arising from our discussions with a wide array of Nigerians is the fear that the judiciary needs to be cautious because if their verdict fails to satisfy the requirements of justice, it may detonate the youth’s simmering anger and set the country ablaze.”

The Niche