Again, tribunal adjourns LP, Obi’s petition against Tinubu to May 19

The Presidential Election Petition Court sitting in Abuja has adjourned the petition filed by the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, against the election of the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, to Friday, May 19, 2023.

The tribunal had, on May 10, adjourned the pre-hearing session on LP and Obi’s petition till May 17 at the instance of the petitioners.

At the resumed hearing on Wednesday, the counsel for Labour Party, Livy Uzoukwu, told the court that the scheduled meeting to agree on documents to be tendered for hearing has not yielded much result, saying the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) only made available 30 per cent of the documents required from them.

Uzoukwu said this was contrary to a commitment by the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, that all documents required will be made available.

READ ALSO: VIDEO: Drama as Apapa clashes with LP campaign DG over seats in court

The lawyer added that the LP is yet to get documents with respect to Rivers State where he said the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) said there are no forms EC8A available to be given but is yet to put that in writing despite request to do so.

The counsel for INEC, Abubakar Mahmoud, however, said he was surprised at the allegations of the counsel for the Labour Party, saying the party did not show up for the meeting as agreed, and walked out of the rescheduled meeting.

Mahmoud added that the documents for Rivers and Sokoto states were provided, saying the LP refused to pay N1.5 million for Sokoto State.

The lawyer stated that the Form EC8A for Rivers State has not been given to the party.

He added that some documents were given to the party, but refused to collect them until it was complete.

Mahmoud, however, assured the court that the commission was doing everything possible to assist the court in an open manner.

The Star