The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) made a surprise appearance on Monday at the hearing of the petition by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate in the last presidential election, Atiku Abubakar.
This is the first time the APC Chair will be attending proceedings at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) which commenced sitting about two months ago.
Before now, the Chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondus and the party’s Vice Presidential candidate, Peter Obi had attended proceedings at different times.
Dressed in brown French suit, Oshiomhole entered the court a little over 9 am, accompanied by former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu.
He went straight to the court’s gallery, where he met and shook hand with those already seated, who are mostly chieftains of the PDP.
Among them are former Senate President, Adolphus Wabara, former Chairman of the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC), Tom Ikimi and the spokesman of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan.
Oshiomhole, who sat next to Ikimi, conversed briefly with him until the tribunal commenced sitting around 9.35am.
The APC Chair, announced appearance as standing in for the party and President Muhammadu Buhari, who are listed as the second and third respondents in the petition by the PDP and Atiku.
The petition is challenging the outcome of the last presidential election won by Buhari, who was the candidate of the APC.
