The Peoples Democratic Party and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, submitted 337 documents to the Presidential Election Petitions Court in Abuja on Wednesday, disputing the declaration of President Bola Tinubu as the victor of the February 25 presidential election.
The PDP and Atiku informed the court at the resumed hearing in the case that the documents in evidence related to 33 states of the federation, with the exception of Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, and Lagos states. Their legal team was lead by Chief Chris Uche (SAN).
The results of the presidential elections in the states of Abia, Bayelsa, Kaduna, and Ogun were among the documents that Atiku presented to the court.
The petitioners informed the court that INEC had downloaded the certified results, which were included in Forms EC8A, from its I-Rev webpage.
However, the petition’s respondents raised a dispute about whether the Certified True Copies of the papers submitted to the court should be allowed to be admitted into evidence.
In their final written addresses, they promised to explain their objections.
Through a group of attorneys led by Chief Wole Olanikpekun (SAN), Tinubu objected to the disclosure of data that the petitioners claimed was taken from the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System equipment used to conduct the 2023 presidential election.
Additionally, the Independent National Electoral Commission stated that while it disagreed with the documents’ admissibility, it agreed with the printout of data from the BVAS it had deployed to Kogi, Sokoto, and Rivers.
Additionally, the Independent National Electoral Commission stated that while it disagreed with the documents’ eligibility, it agreed with the printout of data from the BVAS it had deployed to Kogi, Sokoto, and Rivers.
Similarly to this, the APC objected to the documents presented as evidence. Along with other respondents, INEC’s legal team, led by Kemi Pinhero, SAN, objected to the download results’ acceptability.
However, the five-man panel of the PEPC headed by Justice Haruna Tsammani admitted the documents and marked them as Exhibits PT 1 to PT 33. A total of 337 exhibits from the PDP and Atiku were submitted.
The hearing of the petition filed by the Labour Party and its candidate, Peter Obi, against Tinubu was earlier that day deferred by the tribunal till June 1.
The LP legal team, lead by Chief Awa Kalu (SAN), requested the adjournment and notified the court that two important team members were unable to attend due to illness.
“My Lords, we had planned to begin today’s proceedings with the presentation of our documents, but regrettably, we had some unexpected development,” Kalu stated.
“The sudden illness of two of our key employees is the unexpected development, so I feel compelled to ask for a postponement until tomorrow (Thursday).”
“We submit our submission with the utmost humility and regret, We will be here tomorrow morning and we will move forward with vigor, I guarantee My Lords”.
The application was approved and postponed the petition until today, Thursday.
