CJN leads Supreme Court panel on Atiku’s appeal as hearing begins

The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Mohammed, is leading the seven-man panel hearing the appeal in the case instituted by the Peoples Democratic Party and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to challenge the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari at the February 23, 2019 poll.
Justice Mohammed and the other six members of the panel filed into the courtroom at about 9:09am on Wednesday for the hearing.
Other members of the panel are Justices Bode Rhodes-Vivour, Kayode Ariwoola, John Okoro, Amiru Sanusi, Ejembi Eko and Uwani Abba-Ajji.
Abubakar and his party had jointly filed their appeal before the apex court to challenge the September 11, 2019 judgment of the Justice Mohammed Garba-led Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal.
The tribunal’s judgment, which Abubakar and his party are dissatisfied with, had dismissed their petition challenging the outcome of the February 23, 2019 poll.
Subsequently, the petitioners on September 23 filed 66 grounds of appeal before the Supreme Court to challenge the judgment of the tribunal.
The PDP had publicly expressed concerns over the alleged delay in the hearing of the appeal relating to the presidential election case.