By Ishaya Ibrahim
Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last election, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, is currently attending the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja.
The former Vice President is in court for the pre-hearing session of his petition against the President-elect, Bola Tinubu’s victory during February 25 presidential election.
Atiku and the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, have respectively filed applications for a live broadcast of proceedings.
They have in their application, specifically prayed the tribunal for “An order directing the Court’s Registry and the parties on modalities for admission of Media Practitioners and their Equipment into the courtroom.”
According to them, “The matter before the Honourable Court is a dispute over the outcome of the Presidential Election held on 25th February 2023, a matter of national concern and public interest, involving citizens and voters in the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, who voted and participated in the said election, and the International Community as regards the workings of Nigeria’s Electoral Process.”
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“An integral part of the constitutional duty of the court to hold proceedings in public is a 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 Honourable 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.”
Tinubu and INEC are expected to today respond to the applications by Atiku and Obi for the proceedings to be broadcast live.