The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has continued to object to several documents tendered before the election Petition Court by Peter Obi and the Labour Party, for the purpose of tendering them as exhibits to justify their petition challenging the election of President Bola Tinubu.
INEC’s lawyer, Kemi Pinheiro (SAN) said although the documents were certified by the electoral umpire, it always raise objection where such documents were neither pleaded nor issues joined on them by parties.
Pinheiro made the clarification on Friday while objecting to the admissibility of CTCs of election result sheets tendered before the court on Friday by lawyers to the Labour Party (LP) and it’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
“We are objecting to the admissibility of the documents sought to be tendered by the petitioners as argued in our motion heard on the 20th of May.
“This is because issues were not joined in respect of these Local Government Areas (to which the results relate). All these Local Government Areas are strange to the petitioners,” he said.
Pinheiro promised to provide elaborate reasons for INEC’s objection at the point of filing its final written address.
Lawyers to other respondents in the petition – Yusuf Ali (SAN) for President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettma, and Professor Dakas Dakas for the All Progressives Congress (APC) also objected to the admissibility of the electoral documents – Forms EC8A – tendered by tgr petitioners at Friday’s hearing.
Ali and Dakas promise to provide reasons for their objection while filing their final written addresses.
However, the presiding Justice Haruna Tsammani held that it was wrong of INEC’s lawyer to have interfered in the proceedings, since all parties in the petition have agreed to offer such explanations at the address stage of proceedings.
The court admitted all the documents in exhibit.
The result sheets from six states were tendered for the petitioners by a member of their legal team, Peter Afuba (SAN).
The six states are Adamawa Bayelsa, Oyo, Edo, Lagos and Akwa Ibom.
This brings to 12 the number of states in respect of which the petitioners have so far, tendered CTCs of Forms EC8A, having tendered for six states on Thursday.
Those tendered on Friday were in respect of 21 LGAs in Adamawa; eight LGAs in Bayelsa; 31 in Oyo state; 18 LGAs in Edo; 20 LGAs in Lagos and 31 in Akwa Ibom.
After tendering the documents for Akwa Ibom state, Afuba yield to the leader of the petitioners’ legal team, Livy Uzoukwu (SAN), who later applied for an adjournment on the grounds that they have exhausted what they brought for the day
Following agreement by parties, the court adjourned further hearing in the petition till Monday at 2pm.
Credit: The Nigeria Lawyers