The President-elect, Bola Tinubu, is opposing the plea of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, for a live broadcast of the election petition hearings.
Tinubu and Kashim Shettima, through their attorneys led by Wole Olanipekun, responded to the application on Wednesday, claiming that it is an abuse of the court process.
They petitioned the presidential election petition court to dismiss the application, claiming that the petitioners’ requested relief is not one that the court could award.
In addition to calling the application frivolous, they stated that the court was neither a rostrum, soapbox, stadium, theater, or venue for public entertainment.
They argued in the counter-affidavit that the application was related to the court’s policy formation, which is outside the competence of the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT) as it is currently configured.
They claimed that Atiku and his party neglected to call the court’s attention to the fact that practice directives for the exercise had been issued by the respective courts.
According to them, the motion also touched on the authority and jurisdiction conferred in the President of the Court of Appeal under the constitution, which the court as it currently stands cannot consider.
They argued that it was in the best interests of justice for the court to dismiss the petitioners’ application.
At best, they said, the application was “academic, very otiose, very unnecessary, very time-wasting, most unusual and most unexpected, especially from a group of petitioners who should be praying for the expeditious trial of their petition.”
