The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal is starting its pre-hearing of the petition filed by the People`s Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate Atiku Abubakar, today.
The Allied Peoples Movement also joined in this suit which sought to challenge the aftermath of the February 25 election.
Respondents include the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the APC.
Obi`s petition
On May 10, the court adjourned LP’s and Obi’s petition against the INEC, Tinubu, and APC, instructing counsels to go and determine the documents to be considered at the court.
The pre-hearing was adjourned till Wednesday, May 17.
At the resumption yesterday, counsels to Obi, Livy Uzoukwu, disagreed to have received up to 70 percent of the required documents from INEC
While the meeting held by all parties to determine the content of the yet-to-be-considered document turned out to be futile.
“Up till now, we are yet to receive about 70 percent of the documents that INEC is supposed to give us. We have made all the efforts we can, including meeting with the chairman of INEC, who publicly affirmed that they would give us all the documents required. We also met with all our colleagues in the legal departments, not less than six times; some documents were provided, yet all together, not more than 30 percent” he said.
He further stressed the irresponsibility of INEC, as he claims the commission sees “itself as a candidate in an election that it conducted”
“A typical example is that of Rivers State, where the resident electoral chairman boldly told us they do not have forms EC8A to be given to us. We requested that they should put it in writing, but that was not done. Until now, if you ask me, INEC sees itself as a candidate in an election that it conducted.” he added
Following the court disorder caused by aggrieved LP lawyers in the court yesterday, the court adjourned the Labour Party and its candidate’s petition again till Friday.
Despite the plea by Wole Olanipekun, counsel to Tinubu and Shettima, for an extension of the date.
The judge, Justice Haruna Tsammani, insisted that all parties should go and prepare thoroughly before coming to court to identify and agree on documents to be objected to.
The date was not changed as he insisted, they return on Friday.
Speaking further, Uzoukwu further expressed dissatisfaction towards the INEC who had ignored his request on the expectation guaranteed by the court.
He referenced March 3, court permission to enable the parties to inspect the election materials.
He said “The applicants are hereby permitted to do electronic, scanning or make photocopies of voters registration, all papers used in the conduct of the election for the office of the president.” he cited
The counsel for the INEC, Abubakar Mahmoud, LP did not show up for the meeting as agreed and walked out of another rescheduled meeting.
Uzoukwu denied walking out of the meeting as claimed by Mahmoud.
Mahmoud said LP also failed to pay the sum of N1.5 million as required for Sokoto while that of Rivers has been made available.
But the LP counsel maintained that they were also ready to pay the requested sum.
The counsel to Tinubu, Olanipekun, said they have no problem on their side, as they already won 34 states out of the 36.
“We have no problem on our side.” He added that counsels to all parties met, and identified issues to be objected to and not be objected to. “In that spirit of cooperation, we assisted to narrow down issues.”
He continued by saying they have served the LP a motion that is yet to be responded to.
Obi’s counsel responded by saying the motion came late and sought to cancel a paragraph in their petition.
He said that a potent response will be made ready for the motion at the adjourned date.
Read Also: INEC to Atiku: Tinubu validly returned as the winner
Court`s decision
Court declaration Justice Tsammani, subsequently declared that the pre-hearing session will end on May 21, 2023, as the process of settling the documents took time.