Obi Vs Tinubu: Court Admits Final Presidential Election Results as Exhibits
By Boniface Ihiasota, USA
In a renewed effort to substantiate his request for the nullification of President Bola Tinubu’s election, Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the previous presidential election, has tendered the collated final presidential election results used to declare Tinubu as the winner.
The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) admitted the final result without objections from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), President Bola Tinubu, Kashim Shetima, and the All Progressives Congress (APC), the four respondents in the petition.
Not only did the four respondents refrain from opposing the final presidential election results contained in form EC8DA, but they also did not object to considering these vital documents as evidence in the open court.
Obi and the Labour Party LP, represented by their lawyer, Professor Paul Ananaba, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, submitted the documents, along with several exhibits, to substantiate the petition against Tinubu’s election.
Surprisingly, while the respondents vehemently opposed the admission of collated election results at the ward, local government, and state levels, they accepted the tendering of the final result without objections.
During the Wednesday’s proceedings, the collated results from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), as recorded in forms EC8D used by the electoral body, were also submitted and accepted as exhibits.
Furthermore, during the PEPC hearing on Obi’s petition against Tinubu, Obi, physically present in court to witness the proceedings, shifted his focus from ward-collated election results to local government election results and state-collated results before submitting the final result as exhibits in support of his petition.
The collated results at the local government level were documented in forms EC8C, which were used by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the presidential poll held on February 25.
The ward collated results, tendered and admitted as exhibits, originated from 13 states, including Bayelsa, Benue, Cross River, Ebonyi, Edo, Lagos, Niger, Ondo, Oyo, Rivers, Sokoto, Ekiti, and Delta.
Obi presented collated results from 8 local government areas in Bayelsa, 23 in Benue, 18 in Cross River, 10 in Ebonyi, 18 in Edo, 20 in Lagos, and 25 in Niger State.
Additional collated results were from 18 local government areas in Ondo, 33 in Oyo, 23 in Rivers, 23 in Sokoto, 16 in Ekiti, and 25 in Delta.
Although INEC, Tinubu, Kashim Shetima, and the All Progressives Congress (APC) objected to the admission of the collated results, Presiding Justice of the Court, Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani, admitted them as exhibits in favor of Obi and the Labour Party.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Court, Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani, has scheduled June 8 for the continuation of the hearing in the petition.
Speaking to the press afterward, Obi’s counsel, Professor Paul Ananaba, explained that his clients are now able to call witnesses to testify and support the petition.
He stated that the witnesses will present their testimony based on the admitted documents to demonstrate instances of electoral malpractices during the presidential election held on February 25.
