The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) has elected to consolidate the three petitions filed by Atiku Abubakar and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); Peter Obi and the Labour Party (LP), and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM).
The court, in a pre-hearing report issued and read on Tuesday by Justice Haruna Tsammani, the five-member panel of the court ordered the commencement of hearing in the petition by Obi and the LP on May 30.
The court directed that the petitioners should conduct their case within three weeks, during which it should call its planned 50 witnesses, beginning from May 30 when they shall begin to call witnesses and close in June 23.
The PEPC stated that trial in the petition will end on August 5 when lawyers to parties are to adopt their final written addresses, following which a date will be set for judgment.
However, though Obi earlier said he would need seven weeks to present his case through 50 witnesses, the court, in its ruling, reduced the period to three weeks, even as it gave the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Tinubu and the Vice President-elect, Senator Kashim Shettima, five days each to defend the petition.
Likewise, the court gave the 4th respondent in the case, Kabiru Masari, three days to also defend himself.
The court stressed that the parties would adopt final briefs of argument on August 5 to enable it to fix a date for judgement.
Aside from Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who came second in the election, and Obi of the LP who came third in the election, the Allied Peoples Movement, APM, equally lodged a petition to challenge the outcome of the presidential election.
Though five petitions were initially filed to challenge the return of Tinubu as winner of the election, however, the Action Alliance, AA, on May 8, withdrew its case, even as the Action Peoples Party, APP, followed suit two days later by also discontinuing further proceedings on its own petition
Meanwhile, the Justice Tsammani-led panel gave a hint that it may ban both lawyers and members of the public from entering the courtroom with mobile phones on the next adjourned date.
