Following the declaration of President Bola Tinubu as the winner of the keenly contested February 25th, 2023 presidential election, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) Peter Obi refuted the poll’s results.
Peter Obi alongside his party LP headed to court seeking redress for what they described as a fraudulent election.
At the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), LP and Obi said that they will present 50 witnesses to testify in their petition.
The Jurist Newspaper brings you a list of evidence presented by the LP and Obi, in their pursuit to upturn Tinubu’s victory at the polls.
Timeline
On May 30, the PEPC admitted documents alleging Tinubu’s indictment for illicit drug offenses.
The court unequivocally accepted the documents purportedly revealing a staggering $460,000 fine imposed on Tinubu for his involvement in drug trafficking.
The fine was imposed by the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division in case No 93C-4483 delivered on October 4, 1993.
Read also: Court Dismisses PDP’S suit approves Tinubu’s inauguration
Tinubu’s lawyer claim there exists a formal clearance report issued by a legal attaché of the US embassy, absolving Mr. Tinubu of any wrongdoing concerning the alleged crime.
On the same May 30, Obi and LP presented their first witness who testified before the court.
The witness (Lawrence Nwakaeti) told the court that on March 20, at the court’s registry in Abuja, he deposed to a witness statement.
In the course of the trial, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), Mr. Tinubu’s legal representative, proceeded to cross-examine him.
Also, LP and Obi alleged prevalent anomalies during the election and Mr. Tinubu’s ineligibility to contest the election.
On 1st June, the PEPC admitted Certified True Copies (CTC) of electoral documents as evidence.
Obi’s legal team led by Awa Kalu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), during the resumed hearing of the suit on June 1 said the CTC consisted of polling unit results known as forms EC8A.
The result sheets submitted were from Local Government Areas in Rivers, Benue, Cross River, Niger, Osun, and Ekiti states.
On June 6th, the PEPC admitted results sheets from 17 states which served as evidence in Peter Obi’s petition which sought to rescind President Bola Tinubu’s victory in the 25 February poll.
Again, Mr. Obi’s lawyer presented bundles of the results sheets from 21 Local Government Areas of various states of the federation.
Some of the states include; Adamawa, Bayelsa, Benue, Kogi, Nasarawa, Niger, Ondo, Sokoto, Delta, Ekiti, Imo, Kaduna, Oyo Cross River, Edo, Akwa Ibom, and Lagos State.
Things to take note
On May 20, Obi’s lawyer told the court that parties in the petition have agreed to allocate 30 minutes for star witnesses to present their evidence-in-chief.
He said this excludes the time for possible demonstration of any electronic evidence.
They also agreed to use 20 minutes each to cross-examine the witnesses, with an additional five minutes for re-examination.
In the petition marked: CA/PEPC/03/2023, Obi is asking the court to either declare him president or order a fresh election.
