This is a summary of the Proceedings of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal 2023, as summarized by UC Maxwell.

Summaries of Proceedings of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal 2023

The Petition of Peter Obi and Labour Party with Petition Number CA/PEPC/03/2023 was called at about 9:23 am.
Peter Obi was in court and represented the petitioners (himself and LP).
Chris Maigida represented the 4th respondent.
Awa Kalu SAN led the petitioners (Peter Obi and Labour Party) legal team.
Dr. Kemi Pinhero SAN led the 1st respondent (INEC) legal team.
Wole Olanipekun SAN led the 2nd and 3rd respondent's (Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima) legal team.
Lateef Fagbemi SAN led the 4th respondent (All Progressives Congress) legal team.
Chief Emeka Opoko SAN conducted the proceedings on behalf of the petitioners.
The petitioners informed the court that they will be tendering INEC Certified True Copies of documents from eighteen (18) states.
The petitioners informed the court that amongst other documents which will be tendered are certified true copies of forms obtained from INEC in relation to results collation including series of Form EC8A, Form EC8B and Form EC40G.
The petitioners noted that they will begin with the tendering of CTCs of Forms EC8A for the states before proceeding to other Forms.
On this day, certified true copies of INEC Forms EC8A documents of one hundred and fifteen (115) local governments (see tweet for list) comprising six (6) states of the federation inclusive of Rivers, Benue, Cross-River, Niger, Osun, and Ekiti States were tendered by the petitioners.
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.
While the court wanted the petitioners to proceed with the tendering of their documents, they did not have documents for any other state hence, they sought the hearing to be adjourned.
All the other parties to the suit had no objection to the application for adjournment.
Premised upon this, the court adjourned for continuation of hearing to Friday June 2, 2023, 9am.
The matter came to an end at about 12:55pm.

3rd Day of Hearing (Thursday 1st June, 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)

The court sat at about 2:05pm. Justice Bello Mohammed encouraged everyone to be in accordance with the court to ensure the smooth running of the proceedings.
The Petition of Peter Obi and Labour Party with Petition Number CA/PEPC/03/2023 was called.
Peter Obi represented the petitioners (himself and LP).
Saturday Monsigna represented the 4th respondent.
Patrick Ikwueto SAN led the petitioners (Peter Obi and Labour Party) legal team.
Abubakar Mahmoud SAN led the 1st respondent (INEC) legal team.
Wole Olanipekun 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.
Chief Awa Kalu SAN and Dr. Valerie Azinge SAN conducted the proceedings on behalf of the petitioners.
The petitioners brought an application pursuant to a motion which they filed on May 22, 2023 which borders on interrogatories (written questions that are sent to opposing parties to answer). All the respondents opposed to this move. Irrespective of their opposition, the court agreed to hear the motion since the respondents had not filed any reply to the application.
Going forward, the petitioners informed the court that they will continue tendering INEC certified true copies of Forms EC8As with respect to other states they will be contending at the tribunal. Recall that since Day 3 of the hearing, the petitioners have tendered Forms EC8As for 12 states of the federation.
On this day, certified true copies of INEC Forms EC8A documents of one hundred and fifty-seven (157) local governments comprising of eight (8) states of the federation inclusive of Ebonyi (23), Nasarawa (13), Delta (25), Kaduna (23), Imo (27), Ondo (18), Sokoto (7), and Kogi (21) States were tendered by the petitioners.
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.
Irrespective of the objections, the court admitted all the INEC Forms EC8As for one hundred and fifty-seven (157) local governments comprising of eight (8) states of the federation and marked them as exhibits accordingly.
At this point, the petitioners were done with their documents for the day and sought for the adjournment of the hearing. There was no objection by all the respondents to the application for adjournment.
In furtherance to this, the court adjourned till Tuesday June 6, 2023 at 2pm for continuation of hearing.
The matter came to an end at about 5:30pm and the court wished everyone safe journeys back.

5th Day of Hearing (Monday 5th June, 2023)

Peter Obi, in the company of his Campaign DG, Akin Osuntokun, and other Labour Party stalwarts, made their way into the courtroom few minutes before the time for the proceedings.
The court sat at about 2:25pm. The Justices apologized for resuming late as there were matters of grave importance they needed to resolve in their chambers. Justice Abba Mohammed welcomed everyone and proceeded to the suit immediately.
The Petition of Peter Obi and Labour Party with Petition Number CA/PEPC/03/2023 was called.
Amongst many others, notable people who were in court included Peter Obi, Akin Osuntokun, Valentine Ozigbo, Obaze Oseloka and Julius Abure.
Peter Obi represented the petitioners (himself and LP).
There was no representation of any of the respondents in the matter.
With Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu, Chief Awa Kalu, Chief Ben Anyachebe, Jubrin Okutepa and many other Senior Advocates in court, 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.
Wole Olanipekun 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.
Chief Ben Anyachebe SAN conducted the proceedings on behalf of the petitioners.
Recall that, as of yesterday Monday June 5, 2023 (the 5th Day of Hearing), the Petitioners had finished tendering INEC certified true copies of Forms EC8As in respect of 20 states, for which they will be contending at the tribunal to prove their case.
The petitioners informed the court that they will proceed to tendering INEC certified true copies of Forms EC8Bs with respect to the states they will be contending at the tribunal.
On this day, certified true copies of Forms EC8B documents obtained from INEC (as custodians of the documents) for three hundred and forty-three (343) local governments comprising of seventeen (17) states of the federation inclusive of Adamawa, Bayelsa, Benue, Kogi, Nasarawa, Niger, Ondo, Sokoto, Delta, Ekiti, Imo, Kaduna, Oyo, Cross-River, Edo, Akwa Ibom, and Lagos States were tendered by the petitioners.
Although the Petitioners had the documents for Ebonyi State, since they did not list it in their schedule of documents for the day, they couldn’t tender it and had to reserve it for the next hearing day.
All the respondents (INEC, Bola Tinubu, Kashim Shettima and APC), through their counsels, objected to the tendering of each one of the documents and reserved the reasons for their objection until the time of their final written addresses.
In usual fashion, irrespective of the objections, the court admitted all the INEC Forms EC8Bs for three hundred and forty-three (343) local governments in respect of seventeen (17) states of the federation and marked them as exhibits accordingly.
Since there was no other business of the day, the petitioners sought for the adjournment of the hearing. There was no objection by all the respondents to the application for adjournment.
In furtherance to this, the court adjourned till Wednesday June 7, 2023 at 2pm for continuation of hearing.
The matter came to an end at about 5:52pm and the court wished everyone safe journeys back.

6th Day of Hearing (Tuesday 6th June, 2023)

Peter Obi, in the company of his Campaign DG, Akin Osuntokun, and other Labour Party stalwarts, made their way into the courtroom few minutes before the time for the proceedings.
The court sat at about 2:22pm and the Petition of Peter Obi and Labour Party with Petition Number CA/PEPC/03/2023 was immediately called.
Amongst many others, notable people who were in court included Peter Obi, Akin Osuntokun, Valentine Ozigbo, and Julius Abure.
Peter Obi represented the petitioners (himself and LP).
Saturday Monsigna 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.
Prof. Paul Ananaba SAN conducted the proceedings on behalf of the petitioners.
To conclude the tendering of INEC certified true copies of Forms EC8Bs, the petitioners tendered Forms EC8Bs for twenty-one (21) local government areas consisting of four (4) states inclusive of Ebonyi (12), Kaduna (4), Oyo (4) and Nasarawa (1) States.
- All the respondents to the petition raised objections to every of the Forms EC8Bs tendered and will give the reasons for their objection at the final stage of argument (final written address).
Having concluded Forms EC8B documents, the petitioners proceeded to obtained INEC certified true copies of Forms EC8Cs (Forms EC8Cs are INEC Result Sheets showing Data of Local Government Area Collated Results). The petitioners tendered Forms EC8Cs for two hundred and sixty (260) local government areas consisting of thirteen (13) states inclusive of Bayelsa (8), Benue (23), Cross-River (18), Ebonyi (10), Edo (18), Lagos (20), Niger (25), Ondo (18), Oyo (33), Rivers (23), Sokoto (23), Ekiti (16) and Delta (25) States were tendered by the petitioners.
- All the respondents to the petition raised objections to every of the Forms EC8Cs tendered and will give the reasons for their objection at the final stage of argument (final written address).
At this point, the petitioners ended the Forms EC8Cs and proceeded to tender INEC-certified true copies of Forms EC8D (Forms EC8Ds are INEC Result Sheets showing Data of State Collated Results) for all the thirty-six (36) states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
- All the respondents to the petition raised objections to every of the Forms EC8Ds tendered and will give the reasons for their objection at the final stage of argument (final written address).
To round up the day’s hearing, the petitioners tendered INEC-certified true copies of Forms EC8DA (Form EC8DA is the INEC Result Sheet showing Data of the National Collated Results) for all the thirty-six (36) states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
- To these documents, all the respondents to the petition did not object to the tendering of the Form EC8DA.
To the documents objected to and that which there was no objection, the court admitted all that were tendered by the petitioners and marked them as exhibits accordingly.
Since there was no other business of the day, the petitioners sought for the adjournment of the hearing. There was no objection by all the respondents to the application for adjournment.
In furtherance to this, the court adjourned till Thursday June 8, 2023 at 2pm for continuation of hearing.
The matter came to an end at about 5:46pm and the court wished everyone safe journeys back.

7th Day of Hearing (Wednesday 7th June, 2023)

The court sat at about 2:47pm and the Petition of Peter Obi and Labour Party with Petition Number CA/PEPC/03/2023 was immediately called.
Amongst many others, notable people who were in court included Peter Obi, Akin Osuntokun, Dele Farotimi, Nana Kazaure and Julius Abure.
Peter Obi represented the petitioners (himself and LP).
All other parties were not represented in court.
Dr. Livy Uzoukwu SAN led the petitioners (Peter Obi and Labour Party) legal team.
Abubakar Mahmoud 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.
Patrick Ikwueto SAN and Prof. Paul Ananaba SAN conducted the proceedings on behalf of the petitioners.
The petitioners opened their case with the calling of a witness. They called only one witness, one Witness ITX whose witness statement on oath is contained in Pg. 85-88 of the entire petitioners petition which was filed before the tribunal.
After the witness took the oath of truth, the petitioners conducted their examination-in-chief (the first examination of a witness by the person who calls the witness) and this was followed by cross-examination by all the respondents of the case. The petitioners however, chose not to re-examine the witness and the witness was asked to leave the witness dock.
During the examination, the witness told the court that he did not vote but is a software engineer who investigated and made findings about the issues bothering on the failure of the 1st respondent (INEC) to transmit directly from the polling units. This his investigation, he said, was founded upon the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and other supplementary laws, INEC Interviews at Chatham House and several publications made by INEC.
After the witness examination exercise, the petitioners moved two motions before the court which was an application for the interrogatories directed at the 1st respondent. All the respondents also adopted their responses to the motion and asked the court to deny the motion of the petitioners.
Prof. Paul, for the petitioners, proceeded to tendering documents of INEC certified Forms EC40G (This is an incident report form which shows data of polling unit cancellations and other incidents).
Due to time constraints, the petitioners were only able to tender certified true copies of Forms EC40G for eight (8) local government areas of Bayelsa State.
This application to tender these documents were objected to by all the respondents, however, the court admitted all of them and marked them as exhibits accordingly.
At this point, the petitioners sought for the adjournment of the hearing. There was no objection by all the respondents to the application for adjournment.
In furtherance to this, the court adjourned till Friday June 9, 2023 at 3pm for continuation of hearing.
The matter came to an end at about 5:36pm and the court wished everyone safe journeys back.

8th Day of Hearing (Thursday 8th June, 2023)

Credit

UC Maxwell

Weyimi Lube

Kelechi

Ifueko

1 Million March Crew

Vawulence Space

Jimmy

Agboga Olayemi

Kolade Kayode

Lyfatubely

Jobidient

Jennifer