The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), President Bola Tinubu, and the All Progressive Congress (APC) have opposed the admission of documents tendered as evidence in the petition by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, challenging Tinubu’s victory.
The Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja resumed on Wednesday with Atiku, through his counsel, Chris Uche, telling the court that the team had prepared a second schedule of documents to be tendered, adding that the documents were fully served on the parties involved.
Among the documents tendered in evidence by the petitioners were certified true copies of Form EC8A downloaded from the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV).
The forms tendered included those for eight local government areas (LGAs) in Bayelsa State, 23 LGAs in Kaduna State, 20 in Ogun, and 23 in Kogi.
The petitioners further tendered Form EC40G for Kaduna State. This is the form where INEC inputs the number of all polling units cancelled or those where voters could not vote.
Finally, they tendered the printout of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and accreditation data with details, including the timestamps for 33 states.
They prayed the court to deem the documents as read pursuant to provisions of paragraph 46(a) of the first schedule of the Electoral Act.
For Kogi State, the respondents objected to the admission of all the documents in most of the local governments, except Olamaboro, Ofu, Omala, Okehi and Ajaokuta.
They also declined giving consent that the documents be deemed as read, having objected to their admissibility.
Having tendered the documents, the Chairman of the court, Justice Haruna Tsammani, admitted them as evidence.
The court subsequently adjourned the case to June 1, for continuation of hearing.
Earlier, the case of the Labour Party (LP) could not go on, as its counsel, Awa Kalu, told the court that they had planned to call more witnesses and tender documents, but were constrained by some challenges, including the ill-health of two key staff members of its secretariat, making it impossible for them to continue for the day.
He asked for an adjournment to June 1, which the court granted.
The presidential candidate of the LP, Peter Obi, who had become a regular at the proceedings, was present, joined by his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed.
Credit: The Nigeria Lawyers