Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the last presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has written to President of the Court of Appeal on the need not to allow his petition at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to be caught by constitutional timelime The tribunal had on August 21 reserved judgment in the petition filed by Atiku against the declaration of President Muhammadu Buhari as winner of the 2019 presidential election.
The five-member panel of the tribunal, led by Justice Mohammed Garba, reserved judgment after the petitioners and respondents adopted their final written addresses.
The respondents in the petition are the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Justice Garba while reserving judgment on the petition had informed parties that the tribunal would communicate to them the date the verdict would be delivered.
Sequel to Section 134 (2) and (3) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), the hearing and judgment in petitions at the tribunal of first instance are supposed to be concluded within 180 days.
A senior member of the Atiku/PDP legal team, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), confirmed to THISDAY yesterday that they dispatched the letter to the tribunal on Wednesday.
On what prompted the letter, Ozekhome said such a significant petition, which has caught the attention of Nigerians and members of the international community, should not be allowed to be truncated by constitutional timeline at the tribunal.
The PDP and Atiku had on March 8 petitioned the tribunal over the February 23 election in which INEC returned Buhari as duly elected.
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