Tinubu asks tribunal to dismiss live broadcast application, says court is not theatre

President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu has asked the Presidential Election Petition Court to dismiss the application filed by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Atiku Abubakar for a live broadcast of the election petition proceedings.

Tinubu, through his legal team, led by Wole Olanipekun, describes Atiku’s application as an abuse of the court’s processes, noting that the court is not a soapbox, rostrum, or theatre where public entertainment should be entertained.

“With much respect to the petitioners, the motion is an abuse of the processes of this honourable court,” the respondents stated.

They, however, urged the Presidential Election Petition Court to dismiss Atiku’s application, arguing that the relief sought by the applicants was not one that the court could grant.

The team of lawyers stated in the counter-affidavit that the application relates to the policy formulation of the court, which is outside the PEPC’s jurisdiction as constituted.

“The application also touches on the powers and jurisdiction invested in the President of the Court of Appeal by the Constitution, over which this honourable court as presently constituted cannot entertain,” they said.

They also argued that the application is aimed at dissipating the judicial time of the court, noting that the application does not have any bearing on the petition filed by the petitioners.

Tinubu’s respondents criticised the applicants’ reference to the fact that virtual proceedings were permitted during the COVID-19 pandemic in an attached written address.

They also argued that Atiku and PDP failed to draw the court’s attention to the fact that practise directions for the exercise had been issued by the respective courts.

“Another angle to this very curious application is the invitation it extends to the court to make an order that it cannot supervise.

“The position of the law remains, and we do submit that the court, like nature, does not make an order in vain or an order which is incapable of enforcement,”

According to Tinubu’s legal teams, the application is academic, otiose, unnecessary, time-wasting, most unusual, and most unexpected, especially coming from a group of petitioners who should be praying for an expeditious trial of their petition.

“Beyond all these, it is our submission that the court of law must and should always remain what it is, what it should be, and what it is expected to be: a serene, disciplined, hallowed, tranquil, honourable, and decorous institution and place,” they added.