The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) adjourned till Friday, the pre-hearing session in petition filed by the Presidential Candidate of Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi challenging the victory of the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the February 25 elections.
The five-member panel of the tribunal led by Justice Haruna Tsammani, adjourned till May 19, after urging counsels to meet and resolve issues concerning documents.
The Petition marked: CA/PEPC/03/2023 has the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu, Vice President-elect, Kashim Shettima and the APC listed as 1st to 4th respondents respectively.
In Wednesday’s proceedings, Counsel to LP, Livy Nwakweue (SAN) told the court that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was yet to give them about 70% of the documents they requested for to pursue their case.
“We wrote the INEC chairman 5 times and we have the evidence in court. They have still only provided us with 30% of the documents we requested for.
He cited Rivers State an example saying that a resident official told them that they do not have any form EC8A to give to them and the LP requested that the statement should be in writing but none was written, while in Sokoto, they were asked to pay N1.5 million to get the materials.
Livy also stated that despite five different visits to the INEC headquarters, the needed documents have not been released to them, adding that he wrote to the lead counsel representing INEC, A.B.
Mahmood (SAN), to solicit for his help in getting the necessary documents, so they know those to object to and those not to object to, but it yielded no results.
Responding to his comments, Mahmood said he received a call on Monday, May 15, at about 10:00am, stating that the LP team were not on ground for the agreed meeting to inspect the election materials and contacted the LP legal team.
“I called Barr. Livy to inform him about the absence of his team, and he apologize, saying he had no idea the team was supposed to be there and they rescheduled for Tuesday 16th
“Upon my return to Abuja at about 06:00pm on Monday, I received a letter from Barr.Livy, stating that his team( LP team) were denied access to the necessary documents and that there were not given the documents from Sokoto because his team were not able to pay N1.5m, while in Rivers, they were not given anything.
Mahmood told the court that upon reception of the letter, he communicated with the INEC to verify and rectify the issue and got clarifications on the issue.
He said, that in Rivers state, the LP was given part of the documents, but they refuse to accept it, saying that the documents must be complete, while in Sokoto state, the money requested was to produce the documents.
A.B Mammood, also stated that on Tuesday May 16, when they finally met, the team of the LP walked out of the meeting, insisting that they will not continue with the meeting except they get the complete documents.
Counsel to the Tinubu, Wole Olanipekun (SAN) and L. O. Fagbemi (SAN) representing APC told the court that the LP team walked out of the meeting, but that they agreed that all documents certified by INEC will not be objected to but any other documents will be objected to.
Responding to allegations of walking out of the meeting, Barr. Livy said his team never walked out of the meeting but instead asked that they be given a date for them to come for it, but no date was given.
He noted that, they were served on Monday, Tuesday and even today and he informed them that they will reply by Friday.
He also said the are ready to pay any amount officially required from them to enable them get the necessary documents.
Justice Tsammani reminded them that the pre-hearing session is scheduled to last for 14days, meaning that the last day of pre-hearing will be on Sunday 21st of May, 2023
The Court then adjourned till Friday May 19, 2023 for continuation of the pre-hearing process.
Olanipekun expressed his dissatisfaction on the short adjournment date and pleaded for more time to reply the response of the Petitioners.
The court however insisted on Friday as the adjournment date.
Present in court was Presidential candidate of the party, Mr. Peter Obi, embattled National Chairman, Barr. Julius Abure, LP Presidential Campaign Council Chairman (PCC) Mr. Akin Osuntokun, the National Women leader, Mrs. Dudu Manuga, factional party Chairman, Lamidi Apapa and others.
However, The Labour Party (LP) on Tuesday has raised an alarm over an attempt by the suspended Deputy Chairman of the party, Lamidi Apapa and his group, to invalidate all the Electoral seats won by the party in the just concluded general elections.
In a statement by the Acting National Publicity Secretary of the party, Obiora Ifoh, the party alleged that the plot is championed by the suspended National Legal Adviser, Samuel Akingbade Oyelekan, who is a key member of the Apapa group.
Ifoh said that while everyone focused on wednesday’s proceedings at the Presidential Election Petition Court, Abuja, for continuation of hearing on Obi’s petition, Apapa’s “agents” were in Kano plotting the destruction of the party.
He said “with all attentions focused on it (the tribunal), Akingbade clandestinely sneaked out of Abuja to Kano state where he in collaboration with some members of the other political parties asked the court to invalidate all the elections won by the Labour Party, particularly, the national assembly in the 36 states and FCT on the ground that we didn’t submit register of voters to INEC.
“Akingbade who presented himself as representing the Labour Party, did not oppose the motion, thus forcing the helpless judge to reserve judgement for tomorrow.”
“Though, the party will appear before the court on Thursday to set aside the proceedings, but we have earlier raised the alarm of the plots by the opposition parties to ensure that Labour Party is reduced to the rubbles.” he added
Ifoh once again alerted Nigerians of the numerous plots by the opposition, to hijack the party and truncate its cases at the tribunal, saying that letters have been written by the same faction to have their cases at the tribunal withdrawn.
Ifoh therefore sent a disclaimer disassociating the party from all activities of the Apapa-led group.
“We are using this medium to alert the judiciary and all law enforcement agencies, particularly, the police, DSS to note that Samuel Akingbade, Lamidi Apapa, Abayomi Arabambi and everyone in that camp have ceased to be representing Labour Party in whatever capacity.” he said
