Presidential Election Petition: Peter Obi Closes Case Against Tinubu

Peter Obi and his Labour Party, LP, filed a suit with the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) on Friday, disputing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s victory.

Obi and LP are named as complainants in the suit CA/PEPC/03/2023, which challenges Tinubu’s election as Nigeria’s president on May 29.

The petition names the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, and the All Progressives Congress (APC) as respondents.

The petitioners were granted three weeks to present their case to the court against the respondents.

They notified the court that they would bring fifty witnesses to prove their case, but because it was Friday, they only called thirteen.

Earlier, Livy Uzoukwu, SAN, counsel for the petitioners, informed the court that their twelfth witness, Yunusa Tanko, was in court to be cross-examined by the respondents.

Kemi Pinheiro, SAN, for INEC, Wole Olanipakun, SAN, for Tinubu and Shettima, and Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, for the APC, represented the respondents.

Yunusa Tanko, a member of the LP Situation Room, testified as the twelfth witness (PW12), and several papers were tendered through him.

In response to INEC’s cross-examination, the witness informed the court that the results provided to them were mangled and unreadable.

When Olanipekun asked how many party agents, his party had during the election, he answered over 130,000, even though the federation has 176,974 polling units.

Tanko was also asked what he intended the court to do with the twelve states where LP had won, as well as what would happen to Atiku Abubakar, who had been declared second.

He stated that he was contesting the whole election results because they were still being downloaded from the IreV four months after the poll.

When Fagbemi questioned him about not providing the number of illegal votes, he said that their expert had already supplied evidence on the number of disputed ballots.

The respondents tendered through the Federal High Court witness judgments, with FHC/ABJ/1454/2022, delivered on January 23, 2023, involving LP vs INEC.

Peter Yari, PW 13, an INEC ad hoc staff member, also testified in court.

Following PW13’s testimony, the petitioners’ counsel, Uzoukwu, informed the court that they are concluding their case.

The respondents asked the court to give them till next week to go home and celebrate Sallah with their families before returning on July 3 to begin their case.

According to NAN, the five-member panel presided over by Justice Haruna Tsammani delayed the matter to July 3 for the respondents to present their case.