The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal on Wednesday fixed May 15 and May 16 for the pre-hearing session in the petitions filed by the candidate of PDP in the 2019 presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, three other political parties and their presidential candidates.
They are challenging the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
At the inaugural sitting at the Appeal Court complex, Abuja, Chairman of the five-man tribunal panel, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, urged all counsel representing the parties in the matter to identify the petitions and applications filed before the tribunal.
Bukachuwa who is also the President of the Appeal Court, assured all stakeholders that each litigant would be given equal opportunity to present his case in a mature manner.
”We therefore require the maximum cooperation of all the stakeholders, especially from the leaders of the Bar.
”We expect the proceedings to be conducted with decorum, a high sense of responsibility, dedication, and patriotism in our quest to arrive at just decisions in all petitions before us.
”We assure all stakeholders that each litigant will be given equal opportunity to present his case in a mature manner before us,’’ she stressed.
The president also called on counsel to all the parties not to hype the polity after sittings by making a public analysis in the media as to what transpired in the court room.
According to Bukachuwa, proceedings at the tribunal will be treated as any other low profile case, where proceedings in the court are not discuss publicly until a decision is pronounced by the tribunal.
The chairman said that the tribunal will do everything possible to make relevant information available as at when due adding that, any breach at the tribunal will not be condoned. (NAN)
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