On Tuesday, the People’s Democratic Party and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, failed to tender more electoral documents from the Independent National Electoral Commission as part of their evidence against President Bola Tinubu’s February 25 election victory….CONTINUE READING...CONTINUE READING
The Presidential Election Petition Court had to adjourn the petitioner’s case till Wednesday to enable them properly arrange the documents they sought to tender.
During the proceedings, the PDP lead counsel, Chris Uche SAN, had started by tendering the INEC voters register for FCT (in 14 batches).
The documents were objected to by the lawyers representing INEC, Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress.
But the court admitted them as Atiku’s evidence while reserving ruling on the objections.
Uche then proceeded to tender Form EC8As (polling unit results) beginning with Abia state.
But Uche told the PEPC that it was difficult to get electoral materials including Form EC8As from INEC.
He added that the bulk of documents he received from INEC through a subpoena should be admitted as evidence prior to proper numbering by lawyers to parties and the court registry after the close of the day’s proceedings.
He said INEC should have properly arranged the documents before bringing them to court in line with a subpoena issued to the electoral umpire.
But INEC’ lawyer, Oluwakemi Pineiro, disagreed with Uche, saying after an election, it was incumbent on anyone to arrange the electoral documents given to them by INEC in line with how they intend to prosecute their matter.
He explained that the documents sought to be tendered by the PDP were brought by INEC officials from across the country.
He added that despite producing the documents, the PDP had not paid for its certification.
The five-man panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani told Uche that it was the duty of his legal team to create a schedule of the documents after INEC had produced the documents he sought for through subpoena.
Uche again pleaded that the documents be tendered in batches from the bar, adding that it will take about 2 to 3 days of their time to properly number them.
“We want everything to be done in open court and transparently.
“We will give you time for you to prepare yourself,” the court said while standing down the proceedings for a few minutes.
When the judges returned, Uche told the court that they (himself and lawyers to respondents) have agreed that he will take the documents back and arrange the schedule and tender them tomorrow, Wednesday.
Lawyers to all the respondents confirmed to the court that such agreement was reached with the petitioners.
“This petition is further adjourned for continuation of hearing,” Justice Haruna Tsammani ruled, having noted the agreement of counsels.
A member of the panel said “We have come to a rather premature end” of the petition for today, advising the PDP to arrange the documents properly in view of the time bound nature of the proceedings.
The petitioners have two more days (Thursday) to round up with tendering of documents and presentation of witnesses.
So far, the PDP has brought about 25 witnesses to give evidence that INEC failed to comply with electoral guidelines in the conduct of the 2023 election….CONTINUE READING
