Court admits Obi’s documents against Tinubu's election as exhibits

The Presidential Election Petition Court on Tuesday in Abuja admitted forms for the collation of presidential election results in 17 states as exhibits in a petition filed against the election of President Bola Tinubu.

The petitioners, Mr. Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) at the Feb. 25 presidential election, and his party tendered the exhibits known as Forms EC8B.

Obi’s and the LP’s petition is marked as CA/PEPC/03/2023 and was filed against Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), his deputy, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, and INEC, the electoral umpire.

At the resumed hearing of the petition, Obi and his party, through a counsel in his legal team, Mr. Ben Anichebe (SAN), tendered the Forms EC8B from the 17 states they were contesting.

The states are Adamawa with results from 21 Local Government Areas (LGAs); Bayelsa (eight LGAs); Benue (23 LGAs); Kogi (21 LGAs); Nasarawa State (11 LGAs); and Niger (25 LGAs).

Others are Ondo State (18 LGAs); Sokoto State (21 LGAs); Delta (25 LGAs); Ekiti (11 LGAs); Imo (25 LGAs); and Kaduna State (21 LGAs).

The rest are Oyo State (27 LGAs); Cross River (18 LGAs); Edo (15 LGAs); Akwa Ibom (31 LGAs); and Lagos State (20 LGAs).

Counsel representing the respondents all objected to the tendering of the Forms EC8Bs by the petitioners.

They are Mr. Kemi Pinhero (SAN), representing INEC; Mr. Wole Olanipakun (SAN), representing Tinubu and Alhaji Shettima; and Mr. Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), representing the APC.

They told the court that they would reserve reasons for their objection to the tendering of the forms until their final addresses.

The court, however, admitted all the documents tendered by the petitioners as their schedule of documents and marked them as exhibits.

The five-man panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani adjourned further hearing of the petition to Wednesday.