A former Vice President and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, on Tuesday, said he is not worried that the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, swearing-in on May 29, before the conclusion of petitions seeking to nullify his election victory.
Atiku, who is currently challenging the declaration of Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, as winner of the presidential election that held on February 25, said he was hopeful that he would reclaim his mandate in court.
Speaking through his lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche, SAN, shortly after the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, sitting in Abuja, consolidated his petition with the ones that were filed by candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi and the Allied Peoples Movement, APM, Atiku, maintained that the court, has the powers to sack Tinubu from office, even after the swearing in ceremony.
Noting that full blown hearing on the three merged petitions would commence on May 30, a day after Tinubu’s swearing in as President, the PDP candidate, through his team of f lawyers, said: “I have been asked about May 29, I want to assure people that swearing in is only a ceremony that does not in any way tie the hands of the court.
“The taking of oath binds the person who takes the oath and not the court
“The court has given you its timelines for parties to present their case. We are happy that with the development, the petitions will be expeditiously determined, ” Atiku’s lawyer, Uche, SAN, added.