The Peoples Democratic Party and its presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, have applied for an order to allow the live coverage of the court proceedings on the case they filed against the vote.
Atiku’s legal team filed a motion for an order directing the court’s registry and the parties on “modalities for admission of Media Practitioners and their Equipment into the courtroom.”
The presidential candidate contends that the case is of national interest that involves the electorate in all of Nigeria’s states.
He and the PDP also advocate that allowing “a regulated televising of the proceedings” is in “consonance with the maxim that justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done.”
In addition, they want the court to compel withdraw the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to the declared winner of the 2023 Presidential Election, Bola Tinubu.
Atiku is challenging the declaration and wants the court to declare him as the winner or cancel the election.
The Labour Party (LP) and its candidate, Peter Obi, are also challenging the declaration of Tinubu as the winner of the vote, as are the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and a faction of the Action Alliance (AA).
INEC announced Tinubu as the 25 February presidential election winner on 1 March.
The commission’s tally showed he polled 8,794,726 votes, with Atiku coming second with 6,984,520, and Obi garnering 6,101,536 ballots to come third.
The runners-up say the election was fraught with irregularities. They also contend that Tinubu was unqualified to run for president.
