Festus Keyamo, Minister of State for Labour, has praised the presidential election tribunal’s decision to deny the request for live broadcast of its proceedings.
Keyamo, the chief spokesperson for the Tinubu/Shettima presidential campaign organization, stated that emotions and sentiments are not permitted under the law.
It should be noted that on Monday, the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja denied a request to televise its daily proceedings on petitions seeking to overturn the results of the 2023 presidential election.
The application, brought by the two key candidates challenging the election results, was rejected by Justice Haruna Tsammani’s five-member panel as lacking merit.
The court ruled that there was no existing regulatory framework or policy that would allow it to grant such a request. It stated that allowing cameras in the courtroom is a major judicial policy that requires legal backing.
We cannot permit a situation that may lead to dramatization of our proceedings, Justice Tsammani declared.
The court argued that the request was unrelated to any of the petitions’ relief and was based solely on a sentimental claim of public interest.
It also emphasized that the petitioners had failed to show how televising the proceedings would help their case.
WITHIN NIGERIA recalls that presidential candidates Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) initially requested live coverage, claiming that the case was a “major national concern and public interest.”
Both the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, and the All Progressives Congress (APC) urged the court to dismiss the application, which they described as an abuse of the legal system.
The request was eventually dismissed on Monday.
Reacting to the action of the court, Keyamo wrote on Twitter:
The law does not admit to emotions and sentiments.
We shall continue to educate them.
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