The Presidential Election Petitions Court on Saturday directed parties that filed the three surviving petitions before it to consult on their possible consolidation.
In one of the petitions marked CA/PEPC/05/2023, the Peoples’ Democratic Party and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, its presidential candidate, are challenging the outcome of the Feb. 25 presidential election.
Respondents in the petition are INEC, Sen. Bola Tinubu and the APC.
The other petitions challenging the outcome of the election are those filed by Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi and one filed by the Allied Peoples Movement.
The court led by Justice Haruna Tsammani gave the directive on consolidation of the petitions in Abuja after parties involved gave their proposals on modalities to adopt for proceedings.
Tsammani directed the parties to consult and examine if the petitions could be consolidated in consonance with Paragraph 50 of the First Schedule of the Electoral Act.
Paragraph 50 of the First Schedule of the Electoral Act states: “Where two or more petitions are presented in relation to the same election or return, all the petitions shall be consolidated, considered and be dealt with as one petition unless the Tribunal or Court shall otherwise direct in order to do justice or an objection against one or more of the petitions has been upheld by the Tribunal or Court.’’
The court adjourned proceedings till Monday for the parties to revert to it on the consolidation of the three surviving petitions.
Chris Uche, SAN, counsel for the PDP and Abubakar, informed the court that parties had agreed on number of witnesses to call, time to be allotted for examination-in-chief, cross-examination and re-examination.
He added that the agreement reached was subject to ratification by the court.
