By Ibrahim Danladi

the ongoing Presidential Election Petition Court, bundles of electoral documents from six states were admitted as evidence on Thursday. These documents, which included forms EC8A containing polling unit results, were tendered by the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi. They presented the documents to challenge the outcome of the February 25 elections, in which Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). During the proceedings, the petitioners’ legal team, led by Awa Kalu SAN, informed the court that they intended to present Certified True Copies of the documents as evidence for 18 states. However, due to time constraints, they were only able to present documents from six states.

The submitted result sheets were from the Local Government Areas of Rivers, Benue, Cross River, Niger, Osun, and Ekiti. Notably, the forms EC8As from 15 Local Government Areas of Rivers State were among the documents tendered before the court. Initially, the petitioners planned to present forms from 21 LGAs in Rivers State but later presented only 15, causing confusion.

The respondents in the petition, including Bola Tinubu and INEC, objected to the admissibility of the Certified True Copies of the documents. They stated that they would provide detailed reasons for their objections in their final written addresses.

Bola Tinubu’s legal team, led by Wole Olanikpekun SAN, opposed the tendering of the documents, while INEC and the APC also contested their admissibility. Similarly, INEC’s team of lawyers, led by Kemi Pinheiro SAN, opposed the admissibility of the documents.

However, the five-man panel of the Presidential Election Petition Court, headed by Justice Haruna Tsammani, admitted the documents from the 15 LGAs of Rivers State and marked them as Exhibits PB1 to PB15. Additionally, the court admitted electoral forms from 23 LGAs in Benue State, marked as Exhibits PT1-PT23, and results from 18 LGAs in Cross River State, marked as Exhibits PD1-PD18.

The court also admitted results from LGAs in Niger State, Osun, and Ekiti as evidence. Further proceedings in Peter Obi’s petition were adjourned to June 2, 2023, for continuation.