Presidential Election Tribunal admits Obi’s result documents from 17 States
By Jude-Ken Ojinnaka
The Presidential Election Petition tribunal in Abuja, has admitted in evidence results sheets from 17 States in Peter Obi’s petition challenging President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s victory in the 25 February presidential poll.
Mr Obi contested for the Nigerian presidency on the platform of the Labour Party and came third in the contest, behind the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, who came second. Atiku is similarly challenging Mr Tinubu’s victory in a separate suit.
Nigeria’s electoral umpire, INEC, declared Mr Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner of the February presidential election.
But Mr Obi alleges electoral malpractices against INEC and Mr Tinubu. He said there were gross violations of the constitution and the electoral law during the election.
To prove his case, Mr Obi has tendered tons of documentary evidence before the five-member panel of the court headed by Justice Haruna Tsammani.
At the resumed hearing of the petition on Tuesday, Mr Obi’s counsel, Ben Anichebe, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), tendered certified true copies of results sheets from ward collation centres of 17 states of the federation.
Mr Anichebe presented bundles of the results sheets from 21 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Adamawa State; eight LGAs of Bayelsa; 23 LGAs of Benue; 21 LGAs of Kogi State; 11 LGAs of Nasarawa State, 25 of Niger State, 18 of Ondo State and 23 of Sokoto State.
The counsel further tendered the electoral documents from 25 LGAs of Delta State, 11 of Ekiti State, 25 LGAs of Imo; 21 of Kaduna State, 27 of Oyo State, 18 of Cross River; 15 of Edo State, 32 of Akwa Ibom State and 20 LGAs of Lagos State.
Mr Anichebe said similar result sheets from 13 LGAs of Ebonyi State would be tendered on Wednesday (7 June) because the state was not listed in the schedule of documents for the day.
However the respondents’ lawyers, Steve Adeh for INEC, Mike Igbokwe for Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettma and Professor Mamman Yusufari for the APC, all SANs, objected to the admissibility of the documents.
The lawyers promised to provide later detailed reasons for objecting to the admissibility of the documents.
After admitting the documents as exhibits, Mr Obi’s lawyer, Mr Anichebe, sought to adjourn the case until Wednesday.
With the agreement of the respondents’ lawyers, the court adjourned further proceedings until Wednesday(today).
