The Labour Party (LP) and its candidate, Mr Peter Obi, on Tuesday tendered additional 191 exhibits in 157 Local Government Areas of the federation including INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) reports obtained from five states to prove allegations of malpractices in the conduct of the February 25 presidential election.
The petitioners in their petition No: CA/PEPC/03/2023 are contesting the declaration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his All Progressives Congress (APC), as winners of the election.
The tendered exhibits comprised results sheets and reports used by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the election.
Although there was stiff opposition against their admissibility in evidence by counsel to INEC, President Bola Tinubu, vice president Kashim Shettima and the APC, the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) admitted as exhibits to be used in the prosecution of the petition.
A breakdown of the documents tendered showed that the petitioners tendered IReV reports from 101 Local Government Areas obtained in five States of Adamawa (21 LGAs): Akwa Ibom (25); Ogun (20); Ekiti (16) and Rivers (19) respectively.
A Total of 191 other documents including certified true copies of INEC Forms EC40Gs; EC40G1; EC40GPU and reports were obtained from 56 LGAs from 4 states of the federation.
The states are Niger (10 LGAs); Osun (15 LGAs); Edo (15 LGAs); and Sokoto (11 LGAs) respectively.
The electoral materials were tendered by a senior lawyer in the petitioner’s legal team, Mr Peter Afoba, SAN.
Besides, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate also tendered 5 Reports on the conduct of the election in Niger State and 8 in Edo to back up his allegations of malpractices during the conduct of the election.
The admission of the exhibits was vehemently opposed by counsel to the respondents, who were represented by Chief Akin Olujinmi (SAN) for Tinubu and Shettima; Abubakar Mahmoud(SAN) for INEC and Afolabi Fashanu (SAN) for APC.
Regardless, the Justice Haruna Tsammani led five-member panel admitted them and marked them as exhibits to be used by the court in the prosecution of the petition.
Meanwhile, the Court has shifted further hearing in the petition to June 14.
*(Courtesy, excluding headline, SunNews)
