In his determination to establish his petition seeking nullification of President Bola Tinubu election, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) Peter Obi on Wednesday tendered the collated final result of February 25 Presidential election before the Presidential Election Petition Court.
The Court admitted the final result in evidence without any objection from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), President Bola Tinubu, Kashim Shetima and the All Progressives Congress (APC) both of whom had since the commencement of hearing opposed any document tendered by the petitioner.
Due to consistency in their objections to documents, Mike Igbokwe SAN, who handled President Tinubu case yesterday on behalf of the lead counsel Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN initially objected to the tendering of final result of the election before he was quickly reminded that it was the result that gave Tinubu victory
Apart from not opposing the final presidential election results contained in form EC8DA, the four respondents did not also oppose deeming the vital documents as being read in the open Court.
Obi and the Labour Party LP through their lawyer, Professor Paul Ananaba, SAN, tendered serial results from polling Units results, Ward Collation Centre results,local government Areas results and State results that were duly certified by the electoral body to establish their petition against Tinubu’s election.But all the documents except the final result were objected to by INEC who authored them.
Surprisingly however, while the respondents vehemently opposed admission of collated election results from Ward Level, Local Government level, States level, they accepted tendering the final result without any objections.
At Wednesday’s proceedings, the collated results in the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory FCT contained in forms EC8D used by the electoral body was also tendered and admitted as exhibits.
Also at the PEPC hearing his petition against Tinubu, Obi who was physically present in the court to witness proceedings had shifted his battle from Wards collated election results to Local Government Collated Election Results, States collated results before tendering the final result as exhibits in aid of his petition.
The collated results at the Local Government Levels are contained in forms EC8C used by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the February 25 presidential poll.
The 13 States where the Ward collated results were tendered and admitted as exhibits are Bayelsa, Benue, Cross River, Ebonyi, Edo, Lagos, Niger and Ondo.
The rest states are Oyo, Rivers, Sokoto and Ekiti and Delta.
Obi tendered collated results in 8 local government areas of Bayelsa, 23 in Benue, 18 in Cross River,10 in Ebonyi, 18 in Edo, 20 in Lagos and 25 in Niger State.
Others are 18 in Ondo, 33 in Oyo, 23 in Rivers, 23 in Sokoto, 16 in Ekiti and 25 in Delta.
Although INEC, Tinubu, Kashim Shetima and the All Progressives Congress (APC) who are respondents in the petition signified their objections against admission of the collated results, Presiding Justice of the Court, Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani admitted them as exhibits in favour of Obi and the Labour Party.
Meanwhile, Presiding Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani has fixed June 8 for continuation of hearing in the petition.
Addressing newsmen later, Obi’s counsel, Professor Paul Ananaba explained that the coast is now clear for his clients to begin to call witnesses to testify to establish the petition.
The professor of law revealed that the witnesses will speak through the admitted documents one after the other to show to the Court where electoral malpractices were carried out during the February 25 presidential election.
“I can assure you and indeed the whole Nigerians, that our witnesses in the evidence they would profer, would give life to the petition and the whole thing, would be interesting” he said.