The All Progressives Congress (APC) and its presidential candidate in the February 25 presidential election, Bola Tinubu, spoke out on Monday against the Presidential Election Petition Court’s (PEPC) request to consolidate the petitions.
At the resumption of the hearing to discuss consolidation, Tinubu’s attorney, Akin Olujimi (SAN), and the APC’s counsel, Charles Edosomwa (SAN), opposed the attempt to consolidate the three separate petitions.
They maintained that combining all of the petitions would jeopardize their capacity to successfully defend all of the petitioners’ concerns.
The Allied People’s Party (APM) was represented by Shehu Abubakar, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was represented by Kenny Pinhero (SAN).
Abubakar stated that the party would not object to the petition being consolidated, and counsel to INEC stated that he was neither in support nor opposed, leaving the issue to the discretion of the PEPC.
In rejecting the application for consolidation of the petition, the APC stated that the interests of justice would not be served.
The party claimed that this was due to the differences in the questions stated and the variations in the pleadings.
“Your lordships should not consolidate the petition because of the justice factor.” “The second respondent is concerned about being prejudiced,” Edosomwa explained.
