A combined team of security agencies were said to have prevented lawyers and spectators from entrance into the court premises.
Ahead of the commencement of the hearing of petitions arising from the February 25 presidential election, security operatives on Monday blocked the headquarters of the Court of Appeal, the venue of the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT).
A combined team of security agencies were said to have prevented lawyers and spectators from entrance into the court premises.
SaharaReporters had reported that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declared Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress as the winner of the February 25 presidential election after polling a total of 8,794,726 votes. Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party came second with 6,984,520 votes, and Peter Obi came third with 6,101,533 votes.
Atiku, Obi and some other candidates and their parties filed petitions before the tribunal to challenge the results as declared by the electoral umpire.
However, the presidential election petition tribunal is expected to commence the hearing on petitions filed by Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar today (Monday).
SaharaReporters had reported that the Tribunal last week issued a notice that its preliminary sitting would be issued this week.
It was gathered that the notice had been served on all the parties involved in the petitions, including the INEC, the ruling APC, President Muhammadu Buhari, PDP and Atiku, Labour Party and Obi.
The Tribunal is expected to issue the notice for the pre-hearing session on the petition filed by the PDP and Atiku.
During the pre-hearing session which the Electoral Act provides must be completed within 14 days, the Tribunal will fix “clear dates” for the hearing of the petition.
The five-man tribunal has a period of 180 days from the date the petition was filed to hear and deliver its judgment in the case in which the petitioners said they had assembled hundreds of witnesses to testify.