By Daniel Edu

The Presidential Petition Election Court has decided to postpone the hearing of the defence presented by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to Tuesday, July 4.

On June 23, the court had initially scheduled Monday, July 3, for the respondents to begin presenting their case in response to the petition filed by aggrieved parties contesting the outcome of the February 25 election, which resulted in Bola Tinubu being elected as president.

As per the established timetable, INEC was supposed to present their arguments against the petition filed by the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, on Monday morning.

During the proceedings, INEC’s counsel, A.B Mahmoud, SAN, informed the court that the commission had arranged for three witnesses to testify in support of their defence. However, one of the scheduled witnesses was unavoidably absent from the court.

Consequently, the counsel requested that the matter be adjourned to the following day.

Justice Haruna Tsammani, who presides over the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), granted the request after receiving agreement from the other parties involved in the case.

Three aggrieved parties and their candidates are contesting the outcome of the presidential election in court. The petitioners include the Labour Party and Peter Obi, the Peoples Democratic Party and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and the Allied Peoples Movement.

Each party, along with their respective candidates, filed separate petitions against the electoral commission, the president, the vice-president (Kassim Shetima), and their party, the APC.

The petitioners concluded presenting their case on June 23, leaving the respondents with the opportunity to present their defence before the court.