The Abuja Presidential Election Appeals Court is scheduled to deliver judgments on Wednesday in the three pending cases challenging the outcome of the February 25 presidential election.
It comes about a month after the court heard closing arguments from the parties to the petitions, and about two weeks before the statutory 180-day deadline expires within which cases filed in March must be heard and decided.
The petitions were filed separately by Atiku Abubakar of the Democratic Party of the Peoples (PDP), Peter Obi of the Labor Party, and a political party, the Allied Peoples Movement, to challenge President Bola Tinubu.
The Court of Appeals headquarters in Abuja, which houses the electoral petition court, announced the date of the sentences in a statement on Monday.
The long-awaited sentence will be televised live, according to Umar Bangari, chief secretary of the Court of Appeal, who signed the declaration, a move that seeks to satisfy the public demand that the court had earlier rejected during the hearing of the petitions.
“In an attempt to promote transparency and openness, these rulings will be televised live by interested television stations for the public to follow,” read part of the statement.
Nigeria held the hard-fought presidential election along with the National Assembly elections on February 25.
The election was overshadowed by an uproar from opposition candidates and their political parties, who alleged fraud in the exercise after the results of the presidential election were announced on March 1.
Before the three-week deadline for filing anti-election petitions expired, the aggrieved candidates, notably Atiku and Obi, filed their cases with the presidential election court, each asking the court to declare them the winners of the election or to order a new vote in which Mr Tinubu should be excluded.
There were five petitions at the close of the submission period in March. But two of the petitions were withdrawn before the hearing began.
The hearing of the five-member panel of the tribunal headed by Haruna Tsammani lasted about three months.
More details later….