The Peoples Democratic Party candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s case has made significant progress thanks to the Presidential Election case Tribunal (PEPC) in Abuja.
The appeal objecting to President Bola Tinubu’s announcement as the victor of the February 25, 2023, presidential election was filed by Atiku Abubakar, the PDP’s presidential candidate.
According to the Platinum Times Nigeria, Atiku and his party, the PDP, claimed that Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) had the election rigged by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in their petition.
Along with his alleged indictment for drug trafficking in the United States, the petition also makes claims that Tinubu was ineligible to run for president in 2023 due to the alleged forgery of his academic credentials submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as well as his citizenship of Guinea.
As a result, they are requesting that the court nullify Tinubu’s victory, proclaim Atiku the winner, or call for new elections.
After questioning 27 witnesses, the petitioners ended their case on June 23. The petitioners were then ordered by the court to write, submit, and exchange their final written addresses.
The parties to the lawsuit adopted their final addresses, which include a summary of all the material presented to the court, at the session’s resumed session on Tuesday.
The panel reserved judgment for a time that will be announced to the parties in the case after hearing arguments from both sides.
Reserving judgment is deferring making a judgment or ruling on a subject before the court until the judges have addressed important points submitted.
It certifies that the court has been supplied with all required and appropriate facts, written submissions (pleadings), written and oral evidence, and arguments.
All that is left to be done is for the court to weigh all of this data and evidence, as well as superior court rulings on relevant legal problems brought up during the hearing (precedents), before coming to a conclusion. The case is “reserved” for the Court’s judgement since it won’t be heard again unless there are unusual circumstances.
When a court withholds judgment, it indicates that the case has been put on hold for a period.
After all parties have finished presenting their cases and all written arguments have been submitted to the court, this is done.
It is important to keep in mind that once the judgment is reserved, no additional papers, arguments, etc. may be submitted. Additionally, the period of time between the judgment being reserved and being delivered is intended to give the judge time to write the judgment.