The legal team of the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic party, Atiku Abubakar, has urged his supporters not to lose sleep over the May 29 inauguration ceremony of the President-elect Bola Tinubu whose electoral victory is being challenged in court.
Atiku’s lawyer, Chris Uche, SAN, reacted to the forthcoming swearing-in of Tinubu after a sitting of the Presidential Election Petitions Court on Tuesday in Abuja.
“People are asking about May 29. We want to assure people that swearing-in (of Tinubu) is a ceremony that does not tie the hands of the court,” Uche said.
He added that an election can be overturned by court regardless of whether or not a previously declared winner has been sworn in.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the tribunal ordered petitioners to start calling their witnesses from May 30.
The PEPT equally consolidated all petitions before it into one, having established that they are all disputing the outcome of the 2023 poll.
Uche expressed satisfaction with the consolidation of all petitions (of PDP, Labour party and Allied Peoples Movement) and the three weeks the court gave them to prove their case.
He said the decision of the court is targeted at fast tracking the case.
“We are very happy that pre-hearing session has been speedily concluded and we are going into proper hearing,” he said.
Lawyers to the Independent National Electoral Commission and Tinubu refused to speak to the press after the Tribunal gave the fresh directive on the petition challenging the election.
