Ezechukwu urged the court to permit Obi to serve the court documents on Tinubu and Shettima through the office of the legal adviser of the APC.
By Jeffrey Agbo
The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja on Friday granted permission to three petitioners to serve their petitions on President-elect Bola Tinubu through substituted means.
The three petitioners are the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar; the LP presidential candidate, Peter Obi; and Allied Peoples Movement.
Obi’s counsel, Ikechukwu Ezechukwu (SAN), in an ex parte application, asked the appellate court to grant Obi and the Labour Party leave to serve the petition on Tinubu and the Vice President-elect, Kashim Shettima, through substituted means.
Ezechukwu argued that it has been necessary to serve the court filings through “substituted means” on Tinubu and Shettima owing to heightened security protection around the president-elect and vice president-elect.
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In the ex parte application, Mr Obi noted that the bailiff of the Court of Appeal made “unsuccessful attempts to serve the petition personally on” Messrs Tinubu and Shettima.
The lawyer urged the court to permit Obi to serve the court documents on Tinubu and Shettima through the office of the legal adviser of the APC.
Ruling on the application, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal, Abuja led by Justice Haruna Tsammani granted the request.
The court ordered that the petition be served on Tinubu and Shettima “by delivering…or pasting the petition No:CA/PEPC/03/2023 and all other processes filed in the petition at either the office of the National Legal Adviser of the APC or…with any other officer of the APC at its National Secretariat at No.40 Blantyre Street, Off Ademola Adetokunbo Crescent, Wuse 2, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.”
