The Presidential Election Petition Court, on Thursday, heard the Peoples Democratic Party and Atiku Abubakar, its presidential candidate, request for permission to broadcast the ongoing election petition tribunal hearings live on television.
The petition’s parties established their procedures and agreed that any documents certified by the Independent Electoral Commission can be submitted without encountering any obstacles.
Due to the crucial nature of the case, the PDP and Atiku requested a court order authorising the live broadcast of the tribunal proceedings through their attorney Chris Uche, SAN.
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The petitioners stated that Nigerians have a right to real-time information about the election petition processes since they are interested parties.
All of the petition’s respondents, including INEC, Bola Tinubu, the president-elect, and the All Progressives Congress, vigorously rejected the request.
They argued, among other things, that the court is for serious and sombre business and is not a circus, a theatre, or a movie theatre.
Lateef Fagbemi, the attorney representing the APC, urged the court to refuse to grant the motion to transform the proceedings into a Big Brother election series.
After hearing arguments from all parties, the court stood down for five minutes.
Earlier on Wednesday, Tinubu, and the Vice President-elect, Kashim Shettima, urged the court to dismiss the application by Atiku and PDP for a live broadcast of proceedings.
They argued that the relief sought by the applicants are not such that the court could grant it.
“With much respect to the petitioners, the motion is an abuse of the processes of this honourable court,” the respondents stated.
In addition to dismissing the application as frivolous, they claimed that the court did not serve as a soapbox, stadium, or theatre where the general people may be amused.
They questioned why a petitioner would submit an application in order to divert the court’s attention and squander its limited time through their team of solicitors, led by Chief Wole Olanipekun.
They claimed in the counter affidavit that the application related to judicial policymaking, which is outside the purview of the PEPC in its current configuration.
