Tight security as Presidential Election Petition Court delivers judgment

By Wandoo Sombo and Edith Nwapi

There is tight security at the Court of Appeal Complex located in the Three Arms Zone, Shehu Shagari Way, Central Business District of Abuja, as the Presidential Election Petition Court gets set to deliver judgment.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the judgment is three cases challenging the outcome of the Feb.25 presidential election.

Coming about a month after the court heard the closing arguments of parties to the petitions and about two weeks to the expiration of the statutory 180-day lifespans within which the cases filed in March must be heard and determined.

The five-member panel of the court is headed by Haruna Tsammani had reserved judgements on the petitions after hearing the closing arguments of the parties to the cases in early August.

NAN reports that all roads leading to court of the appeal complex is being manned by multiple security operatives, drawn from various arms, including the armed forces, police, men of the Department of State Service (DSS) and the Civil Defence.

The same formation has been placed within in the court complex.

The Chief Registrar of the Court, Mr Umar Bangari in a statement on Monday said that everything had been put in place to ensure that the judgment in the three petitions pending before the court were delivered hitch free.

Bangari said adequate security had been put in place and that only the invited members of political parties and the general public would be allowed into the court room.

This he said was to avoid congestion and security breaches.

He also said that media houses that wish to televise the judgment live would be allowed to do so but at no cost to the court.

NAN reports that as at 7.30 a.m., lawyers and journalists were being checked by security operatives.

NAN reports that major government buildings, including the Federal Secretariat, the National Assembly Complex and the access into the Presidential Villa were being manned by heavy security personnel.

NAN reports that petitions were filed separately by Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, Peter Obi of the

Labour Party and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), to challenging President Tinubu’s victory.

NAN reports that Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had, declared Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) polled 8.8 million votes to defeat 17 other candidates in what was largely a three horse race.

Atiku polled a total of 6,984,520 votes in the election to come second, while Obi came behind Atiku with a total of 6,101,533 votes, according to INEC. (NAN)