In the ongoing petition challenging the election of President Bola Tinubu, Peter Obi, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), tendered the collated final Presidential Election Results on Wednesday. The results were used to declare Tinubu as the winner of the election.
The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) admitted the final result without any objections from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), President Bola Tinubu, Kashim Shetima, and the All Progressives Congress (APC), who are the four respondents in the petition.
While the respondents vehemently opposed the admission of collated election results from the Ward Level and Local Government Level, they accepted the tendering of the final result without objections.
During the proceedings, the collated results from the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), contained in forms EC8D used by the electoral body, were also tendered and admitted as exhibits.
Obi, accompanied by his lawyer, Professor Paul Ananaba, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), presented the documents along with several other exhibits to support their petition against Tinubu’s election.
Obi’s focus shifted from Ward collated election results to Local Government collated election results, and subsequently, the States collated results were tendered as exhibits to support his petition.
The collated results from the Ward level were admitted as exhibits in 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. Additionally, there were 18 results from Ondo, 33 from Oyo, 23 from Rivers, 23 from Sokoto, 16 from Ekiti, and 25 from Delta.
Despite objections raised by INEC, Tinubu, Kashim Shetima, and the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Presiding Justice of the Court, Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani, admitted the collated results as exhibits in favor of Obi and the Labour Party.
The Chairman of the Court, Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani, has scheduled June 8 for the continuation of the hearing in the petition.
In a press briefing, Professor Paul Ananaba, Obi’s counsel, stated that they are now able to call witnesses to testify and establish their petition using the admitted documents. He expressed confidence that the witnesses’ testimonies would shed light on electoral malpractices during the February 25 presidential election.
“I can assure you and indeed all Nigerians that our witnesses, through their evidence, will bring life to the petition, and the entire proceedings will be captivating,” he said.