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From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) has adjourned further proceedings in the petition by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, against the outcome of the February 25 election, to Thursday, June 1.
The adjournment which was at the instance of Obi and his political party, was predicated on ill health involving two secretariat staff of the petitioners.
Lead counsel to the petitioners, Prof Awa Kalu, SAN, who sought and obtained the adjournment, specifically told Justice Haruna Tsammani led the five-member panel that two of his key staff members, suddenly fell ill.
He said the unfortunate situation of the two staff who were described as part of the engine room of his legal Secretariat, affected his plan to tender vital documents before the court to prove his allegation that the presidential election was rigged in favour of President Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC.
Kalu stated: “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,” Prof Kalu pleaded.
Counsel to Obi told the court that he had before the sitting commenced, informed President Tinubu’s lead counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, about the development.
Responding, counsel to President Tinubu, Chief Olanipekun, SAN, told the court that he was not opposed to the request for an adjournment.
In like manner, counsel to INEC, Abubakar Mahmood, SAN, as well as counsel for the 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 to Thursday and the LP had indicated their decision to call a total of 50 witnesses in the matter.
Obi, who came third in the election, is in the joint petition he filed with the LP, 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 President Tinubu was not qualified to participate in the presidential contest.
According to the petitioners, 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.
On the ground that the election was invalid by reason of corrupt practices and non-compliance with the provision of the Electoral Act, 2022, the petitioners argued that INEC acted in breach of its own Regulations and Guidelines.
The Petitioners argued that the electoral body was in the course of the conduct of the presidential poll, mandatorily required to prescribe and deploy technological devices for the accreditation, verification, continuation and authentication of voters and their particulars as contained in its Regulations.
