HAPPENING NOW: Supreme Court resumes hearing on Atiku’s appeal

The Supreme Court has resumed hearing in the appeal filed by Presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar. The Court had earlier stood down hearing in the appeal for 20 minutes. The seven-man panel of the apex court led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Tanko Mohammed, made the decision to […]

The Supreme Court has resumed hearing in the appeal filed by Presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar.

The Court had earlier stood down hearing in the appeal for 20 minutes.

The seven-man panel of the apex court led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Tanko Mohammed, made the decision to stand down the proceedings to allow Dr. Levy Uzokwu (SAN), Atiku’s counsel, to reach a decision on the procedure of the hearing.

READ:LIVE: Supreme Court hears Atiku’s appeal against Buhari

The panel’s stand was that the judgment in the main appeal (with appeal number 1211) should abide on all the other appeals. This means that there will only be one judgment which will be in the main appeal and it will cover all the others.

Counsels for President Muhammadu Buhari, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the All Progressives Congress (APC): Wole Olanipekun (SAN), Ustaz Yinusa (SAN) and Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), have agreed to this stand. However, Atiku’s counsel is urging the panel to allow them to also adopt process in the other appeals (seven in total).

The major crux of the other appeals was that the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal struck out some paragraphs in their (Atiku and PDP) main petition, which they said was detrimental to their case at the tribunal.

However, at the resumption, Uzokwu urged the panel to allow all the briefs in the appeals to be adopted.

Uzokwu: Our application is that the panel should allow all the briefs in the appeals be adopted. At the end of the day, whatever decision is reached, we will abide by it.

CJN: How many appeals do you have?

Uzokwu: 7, 6 interlocutory and 1 main appeal.