FACT CHECK: Did lawyer query judge over live broadcast of presidential election tribunal?

A video claiming a lawyer was making an objection against the live broadcast of the Presidential Election Tribunal has circulated online.

The video was circulated on Twitter on the same day the Presidential Tribunal held the inaugural sitting.

In the 4 minutes and 20 seconds long footage, the lawyer could be heard saying, “The video-vising, the videoing and live streaming of the hearing at this stage. My Lord, it’s an objection…” 

This is coming amidst the litigation that has trailed the outcome of Nigeria’s presidential election held on Saturday, February 25, 2023. 

The Presidential Election Petition Court, on Monday, May 8, held an inaugural sitting over the suits filed by opposition parties to challenge the declaration of Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as the president-elect.

The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, among others, have since called for the live broadcast of the proceedings of the Tribunal. 

The viral video, initially posted on TikTok, was captioned “Live-streaming of the presidential election tribunal should be put to stop, lawyer said.”

CLAIM: Video shows a lawyer querying a judge in court over the live broadcast of the Presidential Election Tribunal

Verification 

The CDD Election War Room checked the viral footage to confirm the veracity of the claim attached to it.

We found a longer version of the video, posted by a Tiktok user, @worldblogbyqueen, with the caption, “Justice Adrian Fisher Upheld A Public Trial As Dr. Samura Kamara’s Lawyers Argued Otherwise.”

We further traced the full coverage of the court session to Youtube, which was uploaded by SN Radio on April 9, 2023. 

More findings revealed that the court session was about the trial of Samura Kamara, the presidential candidate of Sierra Leone’s main opposition party, the All Peoples Congress (APC).

Kamara, who has been facing trial since December 2021, was alleged to have embezzled public funds amounting to about 4.9 million US dollars.

In the said video, we observed that Kamara’s counsel was asking the High Court judge not to give room for the live broadcast of the trial, as he argued that it might prejudice the case and affect the witnesses.

VERDICT: FALSE 

Findings revealed that the video was taken in Sierra Leone, and the court proceeding was about the trial of one of the country’s presidential candidates, Samura Kamara of the APC, who allegedly embezzled public funds.