On Friday, Peter Obi and his Labour Party (LP) concluded their lawsuit contesting the election of President Bola Tinubu before the Presidential Election lawsuit Court (PEPC).
In the petition titled CA/PEPC/03/2023, Tinubu’s victory in the May 29 election is being contested by Obi and LP.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, and the All Progressives Congress (APC) are named as respondents in the petition.
The petitioners have 21 days to provide evidence in court to support their claims against the respondents.
As they were closing on Friday, they only summoned 13 witnesses, despite having promised the court that they would bring 50 witnesses to support their claims.
Livy Uzoukwu SAN, the petitioners’ attorney, earlier informed the court that Yunusa Tanko, their 12th witness, was present to undergo cross-examination by the respondents.
Kemi Pinhero SAN for INEC, Wole Olanipakun SAN for Tinubu and Shettima, and Lateef Fagbemi SAN for the APC served as counsel for the respondents.
Yunusa Tanko, a member of LP Situation Room, served as the 12th witness (PW12), who testified and through whom several papers were presented.
The witness, who was being cross-examined by INEC, said the court that the results they were handed were mangled and unintelligible.
Olanipekun asked him how many party agents his party employed during the election, and he replied, “Over 130,000,” despite the fact that there were 176,974 voting places across the federation.
Additionally, Tanko was questioned on what the court need to do with the 12 states that the LP won and what ought to happen to Atiku Abubakar, who had been ranked second.
He said that he was contesting the election’s whole outcome since the IreV results are still being downloaded four months after the vote.
When Fagbemi questioned him about why he had withheld the amount of illegal votes, he said that their expert had previously provided testimony on the number of disputed ballots.
The Federal High Court witness judgments for LP v. INEC, with file number FHC/ABJ/1454/2022, given on January 23, 2023, were submitted by the respondents.
A decision between PDP and INEC and three additional parties, delivered on May 26, 2023 by the Supreme Court, was also offered.
In their final written addresses, the petitioners opposed to the papers’ inclusion while reserving their justification.
However, the documents were accepted by the court and designated as exhibits.
Peter Yari, PW 13, an INEC ad hoc employee, also provided testimony.
After PW13’s evidence, the petitioners’ attorney, Uzoukwu, informed the court that their case is being dismissed.
The respondents asked the judge to grant them till the following week so they could return home and enjoy the Sallah with their families before returning on July 3 to present their case.
For the respondents to present their case, the five-member panel chaired by Justice Haruna Tsammani postponed until July 3.