A news report is circulating online, claiming that foreign media outlets were prohibited from attending the hearing of the appeals filed by Peter Obi; presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), and Atiku Abubakar; presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), at the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
The report, with the headline, “SUPREME COURT BARS FOREIGN MEDIA HOUSES FROM ELECTION PETITIONS PROCEEDING,” was published by Sycamoretimes on October 23, 2023.
“The Supreme Court has barred foreign media houses from covering the proceedings of the presidential elections petition, accrediting only few handpicked local media organizations. Journalists from foreign media organizations have not been allowed into the Supreme Court Premises,” the news read.
Obi and Abubakar had approached the apex court to appeal the September 6 judgement delivered by the five-man panel of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) over the petitions seeking to nullify the victory of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 general elections.
Claim: The Supreme Court barred foreign media outlets from the hearing of Obi, Atiku’s appeals
Verification
In our effort to confirm the veracity of the news report, the CDD War Room traced the source to a verified X user, Jackson Ude. We observed that the news blog lifted the same content that Ude posted recently on X.
We did not find any credible media reports indicating that the apex court barred foreign media outlets from covering the hearing.
A report by Premium Times shows that lawyers, litigants, and journalists were accredited ahead of the proceedings, and screened by security operatives before gaining access to the court.
Also, we contacted a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) who attended the hearing. He confirmed the presence of media houses during the proceedings.
He explained, “It’s a small court that was used and all the parties were restricted to 5 counsel each. Foreign media houses are not more important than the lawyers. Maybe they did not do accreditation on Sunday. Media houses were there in court.”
Verdict: All We Know
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