LP tenders PVCs from 32 states | PDP’s petition stalled — highlights of Wednesday’s tribunal session

The presidential election petition tribunal, on Wednesday, admitted sensitive documents tendered by the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi.

Here are highlights of the proceedings.

LP TENDERS PVCs FROM 32 STATES

The LP and Obi tendered several bundles of documents in support of their petition.

Led by Peter Afuba, one of the lawyers in the legal team, the petitioners tendered documents showing the total number of permanent voter cards (PVCs) collected in 32 states before the 2023 general election. 

They also presented documents containing the total number of registered voters in the states.

A certified true copy of the certificate of compliance in respect of Edo was also tendered.

Other documents brought before the court include certified copies of supplementary IReV reports for three LGAs in Benue state, two LGAs in Cross River, 12 LGAs in Lagos and one LGA in Gombe.

All the respondents in the suit, including the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), President Bola Tinubu, Vice-President Kashim Shettima and the All Progressives Congress (APC), objected to the admissibility of the documents tendered.

The respondents said they would state their reasons in their final written addresses. In the interim, the court admitted the documents as evidence.

LP CALLS THREE WITNESSES

Meanwhile, the petitioners called three witnesses at the court session.

The three witnesses – Chibuike Ugwuoke, Oloko Onoja and Kefas Iyak – were subpoenaed.

Ugwuoke, who identified as a cyber security expert, tendered a “metadata” report.

Onoja, the ninth witness, served as an election observer, while the 10th witness, Iyak, served as a presiding officer.

During cross-examination, Onoja and Iyak admitted that aside from the issue of uploading results to the IReV portal, the electoral process was satisfactory.

APM CLOSES CASE

The Allied Peoples Movement (APM) closed its case after calling one witness to support the petition against President Bola Tinubu‘s election.

The witness, Aisha Abubakar, who is APM’s assistant welfare officer, adopted her witness statement on oath while being led in evidence by Gideon Idiagbonya, the petitioner’s counsel.

Under cross-examination by Kemi Pinheiro, INEC lawyer, the witness admitted that she could not confirm when the electoral commission received the notice of substitution of the candidate for Borno central.

The APM is contending that Tinubu was improperly sponsored by the APC given his nomination of Kashim Shettima as his vice-presidential candidate for the election.

The party alleged that at the time Shettima accepted to be APC’s vice-presidential candidate, he was still the party’s candidate for Borno central senatorial district.

Despite being referred to the supreme court judgment of May 26 which dismissed a similar suit for lacking merit, the party insisted on pursuing its petition.

The tribunal fixed July 14 for continuation of the matter.

PDP’S PETITION STALLED

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) could not proceed with hearing of its petition on Wednesday.

Although the matter was called, Haruna Tsammani, chairman of the panel, advised against going ahead with proceedings owing to lack of time and the late service of documents on the respondents by the petitioners.

The court asked them to return on Thursday for the continuation of hearing in the petition — while an extension was given till Friday for the petitioners to present their case.