Details have emerged on why the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, on Wednesday, adjourned the pre-hearing of Peter Obi, the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate’s petition against president-elect Bola Tinubu for the third time.
Justice Haruna Tsammani, lead justice of the tribunal, moved the hearing date from Wednesday to Friday, May 19.
The tribunal reached the decision after the LP and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) failed to reconcile the documents needed for the hearing.
Livy Uzoukwu, LP’s counsel, informed the court that INEC had only delivered 30 percent of the materials requested, in breach of the commission’s pledge to produce all relevant records.
He added that the Labour Party had not received documents for Rivers State, where the Resident Electoral Commissioner allegedly stated that forms EC8A were unavailable for distribution.
Abubakar Mahmoud, INEC’s counsel, denied LP’s claims, stating that the party did not attend the scheduled meeting with the commission, and when a rescheduled meeting commenced, the party’s representatives staged a walkout.
Mahmoud added that INEC provided LP with the documents for Rivers and Sokoto states, but the party refused to pay the sum of N1.5 million for Sokoto State.
He also assured the court of doing all that was necessary to ensure transparency.
