The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) sitting in
Abuja on Monday, admitted as exhibits, more certified true copies of polling
unit results (INEC Form EC8As) tendered by the presidential candidate of the
Labour party, Peter Obi, in eight states.
As usual, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),
Bola Tinubu, and All Progressives Congress (APC).
Obi is disputing the
presidential election results declared in favor of President Tinubu in over 17
states and over 18,000 polling units with his petition also alleging over
voting in parts of the South West.
Before today’s
proceedings, Obi’s legal team has tendered INEC Forms EC8As for 12 states,
including Rivers, Niger, Adamawa, Bayelsa, Oyo, Edo, Lagos, Akwa Ibom, Benue,
Cross River and Ekiti states.
This is apart from five
documents earlier tendered as evidence, including a United States District
Court judgement on Tinubu’s forfeiture of 460,000 US dollars allegedly linked
to drug trafficking.
At the resumption of
sitting on Monday, Chief Ben Anichebe SAN told the five-man panel of the court
led by Justice Haruna Tsammani, that he would be continuing with the tendering
of INEC certified Forms EC8As and some EC8C and EC8D (as they are available) for
8 states.
He went on to tender the INEC Form EC8As (polling unit results)
for Ebonyi state with 13 LGAs (Exhibit PP1- PP13), Nasarawa (13 LGAs), Delta
(25 LGAs), Kaduna State(23 LGAs), Imo (26 LGAs).
When Dr. Mrs. Valerie Azinge SAN took over from Anichebe, she
tendered CTC of polling unit results for Ondo (18 LGAs), Sokoto (7 LGAs) and
Kogi states (21 LGAs).
Lawyers representing the INEC, Tinubu, Shettima and APC, opposed
admission of the documents sought to be tendered, saying the reasons for their
opposition will be advanced before their final address.
Justice Tsammani subsequently admitted the polling unit results
as evidence while marking them as Obi’s exhibits against the respondents.
Earlier in the proceedings, a member of Obi’s legal team, P.I.
Ekweto SAN brought to the attention of the court to an interrogatory
application which they filed seeking certain answers from INEC regarding
accessing electoral materials.
He argued that for the
petitioners’ case, the issues and answers the team seeks to extract from INEC
are germane for the trial.
“I am aware that before
your pre-hearing report on May 23 , before that date, the petitioners’ filed an
application on May 22 seeking leave to serve or deliver interrogatories on the
first respondent.
“There are indeed about
12 questions which we indeed put down for them in that application.
“On the June 2, we filed
an application for my lord’s leave, to enable us hear the application outside
the pre-hearing session,” he said, praying the court to grant it urgently in
view of the time bound nature of the PEPT.
But counsels for INEC
and Tinubu opposed the application saying they are still within time to file
their responses.
INEC counsel, A.B. Mahmoud described the application as a waste
of time.
The panel held it would
rule on it after the respondents have responded to the application.
The case was
subsequently adjourned to Tuesday for continuation of hearing.
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