By Wandoo Sombo/Edith Nwapi
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Candidate, is present at the Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC) hearing on Thursday in Abuja.
Former governors of Adamawa, Boni Haruna, Niger, Babangida Aliyu, Cross River, Liyel Imoke, and Adamawa, Jubrilla Bindow, as well as former PDP National Chairman, Mr. Uche Secondus, and Chairman of DAAR Communications, Mr. Raymond Dokpesi, are also in court.
The tribunal will hear applications from Atiku and the PDP demanding live transmission of court proceedings, as well as petitions disputing the outcome of the presidential election on February 25.
In today’s proceedings, the court is also expected to hear Atiku’s application, which requests a live broadcast of his petition’s day-to-day proceedings.
Atiku and the PDP have expressly requested that the court issue an order instructing the court’s registry and the parties on the protocols for admitting media practitioners and their equipment inside the courtroom.
The application submitted on their behalf by their legal team lead by Mr. Chris Uche, SAN, is based on the fact that the subject before the court is a disagreement over the outcome of the presidential election held on February 25.
They argue that the matter is of national concern and public interest, involving citizens and voters in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, who voted and participated in the said election.
They also said that the matter is critical because the international community is also interested in the workings of Nigeria’s electoral process.
According to Atiku, being a unique electoral dispute with a peculiar constitutional dimension, it is a matter of public interest, whereof millions of Nigerian citizens and voters are stakeholders with a constitutional right to receive.
