Tribunal merges Obi, Atiku’s petitions despite pushback from Tinubu, APC

The presidential election petition court has consolidated all the petitions against the election of Bola Tinubu as Nigeria’s president.

Tinubu, the standard bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was declared the February 25 presidential poll winner with 8,794,726 votes.

Aggrieved by the outcome, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and Peter Obi, the Labour Party (LP) candidate, are challenging Tinubu’s victory.

The Allied Peoples Movement (APM) is also challenging Tinubu’s election.

The presidential election petition court had raised the issue of consolidating all the petitions and asked parties to address it.

Tinubu and the APC had opposed the issue of a merger but the other petitioners maintained a neutral stance.

At the resumed court session on Tuesday, a five-member panel of the court led by Haruna Tsammani held that the petitions would be consolidated and heard side by side given the time constraint to hear and determine the petitions.

The court has fixed May 30 to commence definite hearing of the petitions.

By law, the tribunal has 180 days to determine the petitions and that expires on September 16, 2023.