The Nigerian Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal has indicated that it is ready to consider the Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour Party’s request for a live broadcast of its proceedings.
The tribunal, presided over by Justice Haruna Tsammani, made this known on Tuesday, according to The PUNCH.
It requested that both the petitioners and respondent in the suit should settle and decide on their objections, including the motion on notice filed by the PDP and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, requesting that the presidential tribunal proceeding, which began on Monday, to be broadcast live
The head of the five-man panel promised the resumed pre-hearing session that the application for a live broadcast of the proceedings "will be considered together with the other issues."
In a May 5 appeal, the PDP and Atiku argued that televising the court proceedings would increase transparency and promote citizens' faith in the judicial process.
The opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, are contesting Bola Tinubu's victory in the February 25 presidential election on the grounds that the Independent National Electoral Commission failed to electronically upload the election results at the time the winner was declared.
The INEC, Tinubu, and the APC are the petition's respondents (CA/PEPC/05/2023).
Furthermore, the LP and its candidate, Peter Obi, argued that the ex-Lagos State governor did not receive at least one-quarter of the votes polled in the Federal Capital Territory election.
The PDP and Atiku expressly asked the court for an order directing the court's registry and the parties on processes for admission of media practitioners and their equipment into the courtroom in their application for a live telecast of the court proceedings.
The application was made by their legal team, led by Chris Uche, SAN, on the grounds that the case before the court was a dispute over the outcome of the presidential election held on February 25, and thus a matter of national significance and public interest.
They also claimed that because this was a one-of-a-kind electoral dispute with a peculiar constitutional component, it was a matter of public interest in which millions of Nigerians were stakeholders with a constitutional right to observe the proceedings.
He said, “An integral part of the constitutional duty of the court to hold proceedings in public is at discretion to allow public access to proceedings either physically or by electronic means.
“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.”