The Independent National Electoral Commission has asked the presidential election petition tribunal to dismiss the suit by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, seeking a live broadcast of the proceedings of the court.
The PDP and Atiku through their counsel, Chris Uche, SAN, had prayed to the court for an order allowing the live broadcast of the proceeding due to the monumental importance of the case.
The petitioners argued that Nigerians being stakeholders have a right to have real-time information about the election petition proceedings.
All the respondents to the petition namely INEC, the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, and the All Progressives Congress vehemently opposed the application.
Among other reasons, they contended that the court is not a circus, a film house or a theatre but for serious and solemn business.
Counsel for APC, Lateef Fagbemi, asked the court not to concede the request to turn the court into a Big Brother electoral series.
After hearing arguments from all parties, the court stood down for five minutes.
Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima, had on Wednesday urged the court to dismiss the application by Atiku and PDP for a live broadcast of proceedings.
They argued that the relief sought by the applicants are not such that the court could grant it.
“With much respect to the petitioners, the motion is an abuse of the processes of this honourable court,” the respondents stated.
Besides describing the application as frivolous, they said the court was not a soapbox, stadium or theatre where the public should be entertained.
Through their team of lawyers, led by Chief Wole Olanipekun, they wondered why a petitioner would file an application to distract the court and waste its precious time.
They stated, in the counter affidavit, that the application relates to policy formulation of the court, which is outside the PEPC’s jurisdiction as constituted.
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