Atiku makes first appearance at Presidential Election Petition Court

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has arrived at the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja for Thursday’s hearing of his petition seeking to overturn Bola Tinubu’s victory.

Atiku was a candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 25 February presidential election.

But Mr Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) clinched the presidency after polling 8.8 million votes to beat Atiku and Labour Party’s Peter Obi in the race.

Atiku and Mr Obi are in their separate petitions challenging the outcome of the election, alleging that the conduct of the election by Nigeria’s electoral body, INEC, violated various provisions of the Electoral Act.

They alleged manipulation of the electoral process by INEC in favour of Mr Tinubu.

They urged the court in their separate petitions to either declare them the winner of the election or order a fresh election.

Thursday makes Atiku’s first appearance in court since the five-member panel began sitting on Monday. But Mr Obi, on his part, has been attending court whenever his case came up since Monday,

Atiku attended the ongoing pre-hearing sessions of the petitions in company with Dino Melaye, Kogi State PDP governorship candidate, and other party stalwarts.

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A five-member panel of the Court headed by Haruna Tsammani, fixed today, Thursday, for hearing of Atiku’s request for a live broadcast of the court’s proceedings.

He had argued in court filings that a telecast of the hearing would boost Nigerians’ confidence in the court as it would enhance transparency.