Why Peter Obi Ate With Northerners During Ramadan – Yunusa Tanko
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, told the Presidential Election Petition Court sitting on Saturday that he will present 50 witnesses within seven weeks to prove that President-elect Bola Tinubu, was fraudulently declared winner on March 1.
Obi made this known to the court through his legal team led by Awa Kalu SAN.
Meanwhile, at the sitting today, Kalu accused the first respondent, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, of not complying with the court’s order regarding access to electoral materials.
“My lords, we still have a few hiccups at INEC because of the order that was made by this court on March 8, directing them to allow us to carry out a forensic examination of the BVAS. They have not allowed us.
“We are also waiting for some documents we requested from them,” Prof. Kalu said.
He added that following the court’s orders to streamline issues, parties have agreed to use 55 minutes to take witness testimonies, examine and cross-examine them.
But INEC’s lawyer A.B Mahmoud SAN denied that the Commission did not comply with the court order on election materials.
“I have no knowledge of such hiccups. I had earlier assured the lead counsel for the petitioners, Dr. Livy Uzoukwu, SAN, that I would be available to assist him in any way that I can, should he encounter any difficulty.
“So far, I have not received such a complaint from him,” he replied, adding he would present two witnesses against Obi.
From INEC’s processes seen by our correspondent, the electoral umpire intends to bring one of its Deputy Director, ICT Department, as witness against Obi claims that election was flawed due to non compliance with the electoral act especially the real-time transmission of results to the INEC Results Viewing Portal.
On his part, Tinubu’s lawyers asked for 3 weeks to call 21 witnesses in defence of their client.
The case was further adjourned to Monday.
Recall that Obi wants Tinubu’s victory nullified for allegedly not scoring majority of lawful votes cast in the presidential election.
The petitioner is claiming that the election results were altered in about 18,000 polling units while overvoting occurred in parts of the South West and North.
According to him, if the actual results in those over 18,000 polling units are captured, he would clearly be leading in the polls.
“That it be determined that the 2nd Respondent(Tinubu) having failed to score one-quarter 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,” part of Obi’s petition partly reads.
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