PEPT Update Summary
The court sat at about 9:23 am. After welcoming everyone and inquiring about the preparedness of everyone, the Lead Justice, Hon. Justice Haruna Tammani proceeded to announce the timing schedule for the petitions of the day as follows.
a. Peter Obi – 9 am to 12 pm
b. Allied Peoples’ Movement – 12 pm to 1 pm
c. Atiku Abubakar – 3pm to 6pm
- There was a change to this timing as the court was informed that the APM petition will not proceed substantially and they will be seeking another adjournment. As a result, the APM Petition went first and was immediately adjourned till the next Friday, June 9, 2023.
- Thereafter, the Petition of Peter Obi and the Labour Party with Petition Number
CA/PEPC/03/2023 was called at about 9:50 am. - Notable people who were in court included Peter Obi, Datti Baba-Ahmed, Obaze Oseloka, and Julius Abure.
- Peter Obi represented the petitioners (himself and LP).
- Chris Maigida represented the 4th respondent.
- Dr. Livy Uzoukwu SAN led the petitioners (Peter Obi and Labour Party) legal team.
- Dr. Kemi Pinhero SAN led the 1* respondent (INEC) legal team.
- Chief Akin Olujimi SAN led the 2nd and 3rd respondents (Bola Tinubu and Kashim
Shettima) legal team. - Lateef Fagbemi SAN led the 4th respondent (All Progressives Congress) legal team
- Peter Afuba SAN conducted the proceedings on behalf of the petitioners.
- The petitioners informed the court that they will like to present additional documents of CTs of Forms EC8A for Rivers and Niger states already presented on Day 3 (the previous day, Thursday, June 1, 2023) before proceeding to fresh states for the day.
- With the permission of the Court, the petitioners presented additional Forms EC8As from six (6) local government areas in Rivers State and one (1) local government area in Nicer State.
- After this exercise, the petitioners proceeded to the fresh states for which no document had been tendered. Certified true copies of INC Forms EC8A documents of one hundred and twenty-nine (129) local governments (see tweet for list) comprising of six (6) states of the federation inclusive of Adamawa, Bayelsa, Oyo, Edo, Lagos, and Akwa-Ibom States were tendered by the petitioners.
- So, documents of the additional seven (7) local government areas of Rivers and Niger States and one hundred and twenty-nine (129) local governments of fresh States bring the total number of local government areas to one hundred and thirty-six (136) tendered in one day.
- All the respondents (INEC, Bola Tinubu, Kashim Shettima, and APC), through their counsels, objected to the tendering of these documents and will reserve the reasons for their objection until the time of their final written addresses.
- At this point, the petitioners informed the court that since the time allocated to them for the day was already exhausted, they will like to reconvene on Monday
June 5, 2023.
Recall that the tribunal is supposed to hold Mondays to Saturdays, however, all the parties (petitioners and respondents) requested the court that they reconvene on Monday, leaving the next day (Saturday). The court informed the petitioners that if Saturday is skipped, it will count as one of their days in the allotted three (3) weeks to prove their case. After hearing this from the Judge, the petitioners insisted on coming the next day (Saturday) for a continuation of the hearing. - However, after considering the pleas of the respondents and their own team, the petitioners agreed to waive Saturday (forfeiting one of their days) and decided to come back on Monday.
- Premised upon this, the court adjourned till Monday, June 5, 2023, for a continuation of hearing. The court further announced that beginning Monday, June 5, 2023, the timing schedule will change, and the Atiku/PDP petition will start at 9 am while the Obi/LP petition will start at 2 pm.
- The matter came to an end at about 12:45 pm.
By UC Maxwell @UkomahM