Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, has persuaded the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, sitting in Abuja, to delay further proceedings on the lawsuit he filed to dispute the outcome of the February 25 presidential election.
Obi informed the court on Wednesday, through his team of lawyers led by Prof. Awa Kalu, SAN, that two of his essential staff members had unexpectedly become unwell.
He claimed that the absence of the duo, who were described as part of his legal Secretariat’s engine room, hampered his plans to present vital documents to the court to prove his claim that the presidential election was rigged in favor of President Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
“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, SAN, pleaded.
Obi’s lawyer told the five-member panel chaired by Justice Haruna Tsammani that he had notified President Tinubu’s lead counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, of the situation before the sitting began.
President Tinubu’s lawyer, Chief Olanipekun, SAN, told the court in his response that he was not opposed to the motion for an adjournment.
Similarly, Mr. Abubakar Mahmood, SAN, who appeared for the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, counsel for the APC, said they were not averse to the plea.
However, the respondents asked the court to cut a day from the three weeks set aside for Obi to present his case.
Justice Tsammani granted the application and deferred the petition until Thursday in a brief ruling.
Obi and the LP have already stated their intention to call a total of 50 witnesses in the case.
Obi, who finished third in the poll, claims in the joint petition he filed with the LP that Tinubu was not the legitimate victor of the presidential election.
The petitioners in CA/PEPC/03/2023, also claimed that President Tinubu was not qualified to run in the presidential election.
According to the petitioners, Kashim Shettima, Tinubu’s running mate, was still the APC’s nominated candidate for the Borno Central Senatorial race when Tinubu became the Vice-Presidential candidate.
The petitioners also questioned Tinubu’s eligibility to run for president, claiming that he had previously been indicted and fined $460,000.00 by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, in Case No: 93C 4483, for an offense involving dishonesty and drug trafficking.
The petitioners stated that INEC acted in violation of its own Regulations and Guidelines, rendering the election illegitimate due to corrupt activities and non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.
The Petitioners contended that the electoral body was mandated by its Regulations to prescribe and deploy technological devices for the accreditation, verification, continuation, and authentication of voters and their particulars during the conduct of the presidential election.
They are therefore asking the court to declare, among other things, that all votes cast for Tinubu and the APC were squandered due to his non-qualification/disqualification.
“That it be determined that on the basis of the remaining votes (after discountenancing the votes credited to the 2nd Respondent) the 1st Petitioner (Obi) scored a majority of the lawful votes cast at the election and had not less than 25% of the votes cast in at least 2/3 of the States of the Federation, and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and satisfied the constitutional requirements to be declared the winner of the 25th February 2023 presidential election.
“That it be determined that the 2nd Respondent having failed to score one-quater of the votes cast at the presidential election in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, was not entitled to be declared and returned as the winner of the presidential election held on 25th February, 2023.
In the alternative, the petitioners seek an order canceling the election and ordering INEC to hold a new election in which Tinubu, Shettima, and the APC, identified as the second, third, and fourth respondents, respectively, would not participate.
They requested the court to rule that because Tinubu was not officially elected by a majority of the lawfully cast votes in the election, his return as the winner of the presidential election was illegal, unconstitutional, and of no effect.
In an alternative prayer, the petitioners want the court to declare the presidential election illegal since it was not conducted largely in conformity with the terms of the Electoral Act 2022 and the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
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Similarly, an order, “cancelling the presidential election conducted on 25th February 2023 and mandating the 1st Respondent to conduct a fresh election for the President, the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.
On Wednesday, both Obi and his Vice-Presidential candidate, Baba Ahmed Datti, were in court to watch the proceedings.
Meanwhile, the court will resume hearings on the case brought by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who finished second in the presidential election, at 2 p.m.
