Atiku, PDP seek live broadcast of election petition court proceedings

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has approached the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) seeking an order allowing live broadcast of proceedings of his petition.

Atiku and the PDP in an application dated 5 May specifically prayed the court 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 application filed by their team of lawyers led by Chris Uche, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) is premised on the grounds that the matter before the court is a dispute over the outcome of the Presidential Election held on 25 February, and therefore a matter of national concern and public interest.

They also contended that being a unique electoral dispute with a peculiar constitutional dimension, it was a matter of public interest where millions of Nigerians were stakeholders with a constitutional right to receive.

“An integral part of the constitutional duty of the court to hold proceedings in public is a discretion to allow public access to proceedings either physically or by electronic means.

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“With the huge and tremendous technological advances and developments in Nigeria and beyond, including the current trend by this court towards embracing electronic procedures, virtual hearing and electronic filing, a departure from the rules to allow a regulated televising of the proceedings in this matter is in consonance with the maxim that justice must not only be done, but must be seen to be done.

“Televising court proceedings is not alien to this court, and will enhance public confidence.”

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The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) had in its communique at the end of its National Executive Committee meeting in Birnin Kebbi on 23 March made a similar call.

The NBA had urged the judiciary to allow live broadcast of the court hearings of election petitions, particularly the presidential election cases.

Also, a group, under the aegis of Leaders of Thoughts and Legal Icons, had supported the initiative.

The group had invited Nigerians to sign an appeal on an online platform in support of the initiative.

Femi Falana, a human rights lawyer, also backed calls for live broadcast of election petition cases.

No date has been fixed for hearing of the application.

NAN reports that the court held its inaugural sitting and conducted pre-hearing sessions on some petitions challenging the outcome of the 25 February presidential election on Monday.

The Independent National Electoral Commission declared Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress polled 8,794,726 votes to win the election.

The commission declared that Atiku came second with 6,984,520 votes, while it announced Labour Party’s Peter Obi as the second runner-up with 6,101,533 votes.

But Atiku, Mr Obi and some other parties had rejected the results announced by INEC, and proceeded to the Presidential Election Petition Court to challenge Mr Tinubu’s victory.

Both petitioners had urged the court in their separate petitioners to either declare them the winner of the election or nullify the poll and order a fresh one.

(NAN)