9th Day of Hearing at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal 2023

• The court sat at about 9:23am. After welcoming everyone and inquiring the preparedness of everyone, the Lead Justice, Hon. Justice Haruna Tsammani proceeded to announce the timing schedule for the petitions of the day as follows;

a. Peter Obi - 9am to 12pm

b. Allied Peoples’ Movement - 12pm to 1pm

c. Atiku Abubakar - 3pm to 6pm

• There was a change to this timing as the court was informed that the APM petition will not proceed substantially and they will be seeking another adjournment. As a result, the APM Petition went first and was immediately adjourned till the next Friday June 9, 2023.

• Thereafter, the Petition of Peter Obi and Labour Party with Petition Number CA/PEPC/03/2023 was called at about 9:50 am.

• Notable people who were in court included Peter Obi, Datti Baba-Ahmed, Obaze Oseloka and Julius Abure.

• Peter Obi represented the petitioners (himself and LP).

• Chris Maigida represented the 4th respondent.

• Dr. Livy Uzoukwu SAN led the petitioners (Peter Obi and Labour Party) legal team.

• Dr. Kemi Pinhero SAN led the 1st respondent (INEC) legal team.

• Chief Akin Olujimi SAN led the 2nd and 3rd respondents (Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima) legal team.

• Lateef Fagbemi SAN led the 4th respondent (All Progressives Congress) legal team.

• Peter Afuba SAN conducted the proceedings on behalf of the petitioners.

• The petitioners informed the court that they will like to present additional documents of CTCs of Forms EC8A for Rivers and Niger states already presented on Day 3 (the previous day, Thursday June 1, 2023) before proceeding to fresh states for the day.

• With the permission of the Court, the petitioners presented additional Forms EC8As from six (6) local government areas in Rivers State and one (1) local government area in Niger State.

• After this exercise, the petitioners proceeded to the fresh states for which no document had been tendered. Certified true copies of INEC Forms EC8A documents of one hundred and twenty-nine (129) local governments (see tweet for list) comprising of six (6) states of the federation inclusive of Adamawa, Bayelsa, Oyo, Edo, Lagos and Akwa-Ibom States were tendered by the petitioners.

• So, documents of the additional seven (7) local government areas of Rivers and Niger States and one hundred and twenty-nine (129) local governments of fresh States brings the total number of local government areas to one hundred and thirty-six (136) tendered in one day.

• All the respondents (INEC, Bola Tinubu, Kashim Shettima and APC), through their counsels, objected to the tendering of these documents and will reserve the reasons for their objection until the time of their final written addresses.

• At this point, the petitioners informed the court that since the time allocated to them for the day was already exhausted, they will like to reconvene on Monday June 5, 2023.

• Recall that the tribunal is supposed to hold Mondays to Saturdays, however, all the parties (petitioners and respondents) requested the court that they reconvene on Monday, leaving the next day (Saturday). The court informed the petitioners that if Saturday is skipped, it will count as one of their days in the allotted three (3) weeks to prove their case. After hearing this from the Judge, the petitioners insisted on coming the next day (Saturday) for continuation of hearing.

• However, after considering the pleas of the respondents and their own team, the petitioners agreed to waive Saturday (forfeiting one of their days) and decided to come back on Monday.

• Premised upon this, the court adjourned till Monday June 5, 2023 for continuation of hearing. The court further announced that, beginning from Monday June 5, 2023, the timing schedule will change, and the Atiku/PDP petition will start at 9am while the Obi/LP petition will start at 2pm.

• The matter came to an end at about 12:45pm.

4th Day of Hearing (Friday 2nd June, 2023)

Credit

UC Maxwell

Weyimi Lube

Kelechi

Ifueko

1 Million March Crew

Vawulence Space

Jimmy

Agboga Olayemi

Kolade Kayode

Lyfatubely

Jobidient

Jennifer