By Eze Chidozie

After two weeks of speculation, the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) has finally confirmed Wednesday, September 6th, as the definite date to deliver judgment in the three petitions challenging the declaration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the winner of the 2023 Presidential Election.

The court also approved that to promote transparency and openness, any television station that wishes could carry out a live transmission of the judgment.

The Chief Registrar of the Court of Appeal, Barr. Umar Mohammed Bangari, confirmed the date on Monday via a statement.

Bangari, whose court is the venue the PEPC, stated that every arrangements have been put in place to ensure a hitch-free delivery of the judgment in the three petitions.

The petitions are those filed by the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Abubakar Atiku; Labour Party (LP) and its flagbearer, Mr. Peter Obi, and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM).

Bangari stated that adequate security has been arranged to be put in place and that only accredited counsels and representatives of political parties would be allowed into the courtroom to avoid congestion and security breaches.

Interested members of the public are advised to watch the live transmission from their television sets.

“We appeal for the maximum cooperation of the general public to ensure a hitch-free exercise please,” Bangari stated.

Meanwhile, the Department of State Security (DSS) had through its Public Relations Officer, Dr. Peter Afunanya, alleged of plots by some persons to stage violent protests in parts of the country. 

Afunanya may have alluded to the decision by the PEPC to deliver judgement made the statement, seen more as speculative by discerning security watchers and experts.

Also, a group of political watchers who also followed developments at the PEPC have been enlightening the Nigerian public through #AllEyesOnTheJudiciary, insisting that nothing short of discernible justice devoid of technicality is acceptable to the Nigerian public arising from the petitions.

The group which has been mounting billboards in Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Enugu, Port Harcourt, Benin, Jos, Maiduguri, Sokoto and several key cities in the country, have been drawing the attention of the judiciary to dispense nothing but justice in the various courts where electoral disputes are being adjudicated upon.

For the first time in Nigeria’s jurisprudence, the photographs of the presiding justices of the PEPC were conspicuously displayed on the billboards, which the Federal Government and the DSS have dubbed as being subversive in nature.

But the promoters of #ALLEYEAONTHEJUDICARY movement, have remained unrelenting, carrying banners and flags with same inscription moving about major streets in the country and drawing public attention to the fact that nothing but substantial justice is expected from the courts.