From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), yesterday, adjourned further proceedings in the petition by the presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi against the outcome of the February 25 election till today.
The adjournment which was at the instance of Obi and his political party, was predicated on the ill health of two secretariat staff of the petitioners.
Lead counsel to the petitioners, Prof. Awa Kalu (SAN), who sought and obtained the adjournment, told the Justice Haruna Tsammani-led five-member panel that the two staff members suddenly fell ill.
He said the staff were part of the engine room of his legal secretariat, and that their ill health affected his plan to tender vital documents before the court to prove allegations that the presidential election was rigged in favour of APC candidate, Bola Tinubu.
“My lords, our plan for today’s proceedings was to start with the presentation of our documents, but unfortunately, we had some unexpected development. The unexpected development concerns the sudden illness of two of our key staff, for which reason I am constrained to ask for an adjournment till tomorrow. It is with the greatest humility and apology that we make this application. I assure my lords that we will be here tomorrow morning and we will proceed with vigour,” Kalu pleaded.
Counsel to Obi told the court that he had before the sitting commenced, informed Tinubu’s lead counsel, Wole Olanipekun (SAN) about the development.
Responding, Olanipekun told the court that he was not opposed to the request for an adjournment.
In like manner, counsel to INEC, Abubakar Mahmood (SAN), and APC, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, said they were equally not opposed to the request.
However, the respondents prayed the court to minus a day from the three weeks that was originally slated for Obi to present his case.
Ruling on the request, Justice Tsammani granted the application and adjourned the petition till today. LP had indicated their decision to call a total of 50 witnesses in the matter.
Obi, who came third in the election, in the joint petition he filed with LP, is contending that Tinubu was not the valid winner of the presidential election.
The petitioners, in the case marked: CA/PEPC/03/2023, equally maintained that Tinubu was not qualified to participate in the presidential contest.
According to the petitioners, as at the time Tinubu’s running mate, Kashim Shettima, became the Vice Presidential candidate, he was still the nominated candidate of the APC for the Borno Central Senatorial election.
The petitioners further challenged Tinubu’s eligibility to contest the presidential election, alleging that he was previously indicted and fined the sum of $460,000.00 by the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, in Case No: 93C 4483, for an offence involving dishonesty and drug trafficking.