Obi, Labour Party ask for live telecast of court proceedings against Tinubu

The Labour Party and its presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, have submitted an application to the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) seeking a live broadcast of its proceedings.

Pulse reports that the PEPT began sitting at the Appeal Court in Abuja on Monday, May 8, 2023, to hear litigations against the victory of the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

A total of five opposition parties had submitted petitions challenging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)'s declaration of Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential election.

However, two of the petitioners, the Action People’s Party (APP) and the Action Alliance (AA), have withdrawn their charges against the President-elect leaving the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Labour Party to carry on the fight.

Meanwhile, on the third day of proceedings, Wednesday, May 10, 2023, Obi and his party asked the court to grant media houses access to beam the hearing live to Nigerian and global audiences.

This follows a similar request made by the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, who begged the court to throw hearings open for live telecast on the first day of proceedings.

The motion filed by the former Vice President, through's legal team led by Chris Uche, SAN, specifically asked for "An order directing the Court's Registry and the parties on modalities for admission of Media Practitioners and their Equipment into the courtroom."

In a related development, Pulse earlier reported that the tribunal had adjourned the prehearing session on Obi and the Labour Party’s petition till May 17 as requested by the petitioners.

Livy Uzoukwu, the counsel to Obi, told the tribunal to adjourn further prehearing on the petition till a later date as they have pending processes to be filed and served.