Nigeria’s Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) on Thursday admitted in evidence bundles of electoral documents from 6 states of the federation that emanated from the February 25 elections.
The documents which consisted of forms EC8A which are polling units results were tendered by the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate in the last election, Peter Obi, in aid of their suit challenging the outcome of the election in which Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared as the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
During Thursday’s proceeding, the petitioners through their legal team led by Awa Kalu SAN, informed the court that they would present the Certified True Copies of the documents as evidence in respect of 18 states of the federation, but were only able to present documents from 6 states.
The result sheets tendered on Thursday before the exhaustion of their slated hours were from Local Government Areas of the following states: Rivers, Benue, Cross River, Niger, Osun, and Ekiti.
Among other forms EC8As that they tendered before the court were the forms from 15 Local Government Areas of Rivers states.
The petitioners who initially told the court of their intention to present the bundle of forms for 21 LGAs of Rivers state seemed unable to reconcile the list in their presentation and subsequently tendered 15.
Respondents in the petition objected to the admissibility of the Certified True Copies of the documents which were presented before the court and reasons behind their objections to be advanced in their final written addresses.
The President, Bola Tinubu, through his team of lawyers led by Wole Olanikpekun SAN, objected to the tendering of documents even as the INEC said it was opposed to the admissibility of the documents.
Similarly, the All Progressives Congress, APC, represented by Chief Afolabi Fashanu, SAN, argued that it would raise objections against the documents.
INEC, represented by Kemi Pinhero SAN, issued the documents and certified them as genuine but dramatically announced its decision to object to the admission of the documents.
Breakdown of the tendered and admitted documents showed that Forms EC8A were tendered in 15 Local Government Areas of Rivers State, 23 in Benue, 18 in Cross River, 23 in Niger State, 20 in Osun and 16 in Ekiti Local Government Areas.
However, the five-man panel of the PEPC headed by Justice Haruna Tsammani admitted the documents from the 15 LGAs of Rivers states and marked them as Exhibits PB1 to PB15.
Among other documents also admitted by the court as evidence were the electoral forms from 23 LGAs in Benue state which were marked as Exhibits PT1-PT23.
Also admitted in evidence were results of the presidential election from 18 LGAs in Cross River state and marked as Exhibits PD1-PD18.
Further hearing in the petition has been adjourned to June 2 by the Court at the instance of the two petitioners.