The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the recent February 25 presidential election Mr. Peter Gregory Obi , and his party have announced their intention to challenge the election results in 18 states.
The decision was confirmed before the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) in Abuja on Thursday.
Obi and the LP stated that they would focus their efforts on the states where there were disputes, rather than wasting time and resources on the states where they had convincingly won without any controversy.
During the proceedings, Obi and his party submitted certified electoral documents obtained from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in six states.
These documents, mainly consisting of Forms EC8A and election results from polling units, were presented as evidence to support their claims of rigging and other malpractices during the election.
Presiding Justice of the Court, Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani, admitted the documents as exhibits after they were tendered by Chief Emeka Okpoko SAN, who represented Obi and the Labour Party during the proceedings.
Interestingly, INEC, represented by Kemi Pinhero SAN, the issuer and certifier of the documents, unexpectedly announced its objection to the admission of the documents.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shetima, who are the second and third respondents respectively and were represented by Adebayo Adelodun SAN, also indicated their opposition to the admissibility of the electoral documents in the petition challenging their declaration as winners of the election.
Likewise, the All Progressives Congress (APC), represented by Chief Afolabi Fashanu SAN, stated that they would raise objections against the documents.
A breakdown of the tendered and admitted documents revealed that Forms EC8A were presented for 15 Local Government Areas in Rivers State, 23 in Benue, 18 in Cross River, 23 in Niger State, 20 in Osun, and 16 in Ekiti Local Government Areas.
Meanwhile, the Court has rescheduled further hearing in the petition to June 2, as requested by the two petitioners.