Election court ruling on live broadcast not a setback, says Atiku, PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its Presidenrial Candidate in the Feb. 25 election, Atiku Abubakar, on Monday, said that the dismissal of their application for a live broadcast by the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) was not a setback to their petition against Sen. Bola Tinubu, the President-elect.

Counsel to PDP and Abubakar, Mr Eyitayo Jegede, SAN, stated this while fielding questions from newsmen shortly after the PEPC’s decision.

“There is no setback here. The court, in its wisdom decided that the subject of our application on the live streaming and open telecast did not, in any way, connected with the merit of our petition.

“The petition is separate; it is ongoing. The application did not succeed to have the televised version of the proceedings.

“As far as we are concerned, we are now set for hearing.

“Tomorrow, we will be hear by God’s grace for pre-hearing report that will determine the progress of the petition and the time the petition will be heard and concluded,” Jegede said.

On whether they still had confidence in the court, the senior lawyer simply said: “For us, we are prepared for hearing.”

On the issue of consolidation of the whole petitions, he said it was one that was compelled by statute and that they had no objection to it.

Our correspondent earlier reported that the PEPC dismissed the applications by the two presidential candidates, Abubakar and Peter Obi of Labour Party and their parties for a live televised of the proceedings for lacking in merit.