President of the Court of Appeal Zainab Bulkachuwa has warned lawyers, petitioners and the media against analysing petitions before the presidential election tribunal.
She said any lawyer found analysing a matter after court sitting would be severely dealt with by the appellate court.
In her view, such analyses had the tendency to jeopardise the case before the tribunal.
The court of appeal president said this Wednesday at the inaugural session of the tribunal in Abuja.
She said: “We are witnesses to what is happening in high profile cases where such cases are being discussed and publicly decided prematurely, both in the social and electronic media before the announcement of the verdict in court.
“We pray that this time there would be an exception for the benefit of the nation. We don’t expect counsel to any of the parties to heat up the polity after any sitting by making a public analysis in the media as to what transpired in court.
“This admonition is also extended to the parties, their respective counsel and the members of the press. We, on our part, will make relevant information available as at when due. Any breach will not be condoned and we will not hesitate in taking action against offenders.”
She said the election tribunals had been established in all the states of the federation, except for Jigawa state where no petition was filed.
Bulkachuwa also said, so far, 786 petitions were before various tribunals, with those from Imo state topping the list with 74 petitions.
The tribunal commenced hearing in four major petitions set to be treated at the court.
The court fixed the dates for the hearing of three of the petitions while no date had yet been given for the fourth one.
The court’s timetable showed May 14 was fixed for hearing of the petition by Hope Democratic Party against the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC)
Similarly, the petitions by the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, were slated for hearing May 15 and 16, respectively, while the petition by the Coalition for Change is billed to be heard May 20.
But the court declined to give a date for hearing the petition by the Peoples Democratic Movement.
The tribunal is expected to determine the matters, including the petition by the PDP candidate, who alleged the election was massively rigged in favour of the APC and its candidate, Muhammadu Buhari.
