Protesters in their hundredths storm Presidential Election Petition Court on Saturday

Hundreds of protesters on Saturday, 20 May 2023 crowded the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja where Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s president-elect’s election is being challenged.

A barricade mounted by the police to divert traffic away prevented the demonstrators from gaining entry to the court premises where the court’s five-member panel was holding hearing sessions on Saturday.

The protesters, including many women clad in black and red attires, carried placards with inscriptions urging President Muhammadu Buhari, whose administration is in its dying days, to live up to his promise of bequeathing a transparent electoral process.

Other placards called out the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, for what they described as a “shambolic election”.

The protesters marched through Eagle Square to the headquarters of the Court of Appeal where the Presidential Election Petition Court is located.

They converged adjacent to the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, Abuja, about 200 metres from the court premises where the election petitions filed by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party’s Peter Obi, and the Allied Peoples’ Movement (APM) against Mr Tinubu election are being heard.

The protesters who go by the name ‘Free Nigeria Movement’ were chanting anti-electoral fraud songs while milling around a barricade by police operatives to divert vehicular traffic from the court.

Some of the women amongst the protesters were writhing on the floor as they demanded an end to electoral fraud and corruption in Nigeria.

Armed police officers stood by to prevent a breakdown of law and others.

Since the court began its inaugural sitting on 8 March, it has witnessed a handful of protests.

The protesters have consistently called for justice in determining the complaints before them.

A five-member panel of the court led by Haruna Tsammani is presiding over the petitions.

The protest echoes the acrimony that followed the announcement of Mr Tinubu as the winner of the keenly contested 25 February presidential election on 1 March.

The leading opposition candidates – Atiku and Mr Obi – held separate press conferences in the wake of the announcement of the poll, alleging widespread manipulation of the results, and vowing to challenge the outcome of the election in court.

The two candidates, in March, beat the 21 day-deadline from the day of the announcement of the results to file their petitions to challenge the outcome of the election.

Three other political parties similarly filed separate petitions to challenge the election, but two of them withdrew their cases within the first week of the sitting of the Presidential Election Petition Court this month.

Apart from the petitions filed by Atiku and Mr Obi, there is one more case by the Allied Progressives’ Movement (APM), making a total of three petitions now pending before the court.