Again, Tribunal Steps Down Obi's Petition Over Poor Documents Schedule

Orders legal team to re-file the schedule of documents

Eko Hot Blog reports that the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, has, for the third time, stepped down the hearing of the petition filed by the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi and the Party against the election of President Ahmed Tinubu.

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The petition was stepped down by the Court following poor schedule of documents being sought to be tendered to establish the allegations of malpractices during the February 25 presidential election.

At Thursday’s proceedings, the Court sitting in Abuja, Nigeria’s Capital, discovered that the documents were not properly scheduled as ordered by the Court.

In the drama that ensued at the point of tendering the documents from the 23 local government areas of Benue, a lot of discrepancies were uncovered.

All efforts to reconcile the anomaly and reschedule the documents were unsuccessful as the errors were beyond immediate solution.

To save the situation, counsel to Obi and the Labour Party, Mr. Emeka Okpoko SAN sought to use documents not filed to conduct the proceedings, but the move was rejected on the ground of illegality.

In the end, the Court stepped down the hearing of the petition and ordered the legal team to go and re-file the schedule of documents in line with the provisions of the pre-hearing report.

The hearing of Obi’s petition had run into stormy waters three times, prompting the shift in the hearing of the petition.

At the time of this report, Peter Obi and the Vice Presidential candidate, Datti Baba Ahmed, were in the court as their lawyers were running helter-skelter to the Registry of the Court to file a new schedule of documents.