A former Vice President and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, on Tuesday, said he was not worried that the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, would be sworn in on May 29, before the conclusion of petitions seeking to nullify his election victory.
Atiku, who is currently challenging the declaration of Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, as winner of the presidential election that held on February 25, said he was hopeful that he would reclaim his mandate in court.
Speaking through his lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche, SAN, shortly after the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, sitting in Abuja, consolidated his petition with the ones that were filed by candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi and the Allied Peoples Movement, APM, Atiku, maintained that the court, has the powers to sack Tinuu from office, even after the swearing in ceremony.
Noting that full blown hearing on the three merged petitions would commence on May 30, a day after Tinubu’s swearing in as President, the PDP candidate, through his team of lawyers, said: “have been asked about May 29, I want to assure people that swearing in is only a ceremony that does not in any way tie the hands of the court.
“The taking of oath binds the person who takes the oath and not the court.
“The court has given you its timelines for parties to present their case. We are happy that with the development, the petitions will be expeditiously determined, ” Atiku’s lawyer, Uche, SAN, added.
It will be recalled that the Justice Haruna Tsammani-led five-member panel had during the presentation of its pre-hearing report on Tuesday, okayed Atiku’s request to be use three weeks to present evidence before the court, through 100 witnesses.
Atiku had in his joint petition with the PDP, marked: CAl PEPC/05/2023, maintained that the declaration of Tinubu as winner of the presidential election was “invalid by reason of non- compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022”.
He argued that Tinubu’s election was invalid by reason of corrupt practices.