The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) has admitted exhibits from the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi in six additional States in his quest to establish riggings and other electoral malpractices that led to his loss in the February 25 presidential election.
Obi and the Labour Party had on Thursday tendered exhibits in six States comprising Rivers, Benue, Cross River, Niger, Osun and Ekiti.
However, at Friday’s proceedings, the presidential candidate and his party tendered exhibits in Adamawa, Bayelsa, Oyo, Edo, Lagos and Akwa- Ibom states.
The exhibits comprising forms EC8A used in the February 25 presidential election and certified by the National Electoral Commission INEC as true copies of the original were admitted as exhibits.
Breakdown of the fresh exhibits showed that forms EC8A were admitted in 21 Local Government Areas of Adamawa, 8 in Local Government Areas of Bayelsa, 31 Local Government Areas of Oyo, 18 Local Government Areas of Edo, 20 Local Government Areas of Lagos and 31 Local Government Areas of Akwa Ibom state.
The winner of the election, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress APC as well as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that conducted the election hinted the Court of their intentions to object to the documents at the final stage of address.
At the close of Friday’s proceedings, Peter Obi through his counsel, Mr. Peter Afoba SAN informed the Court that they have exhausted documents at their disposal for the day.
Afoba applied to the Court to consider the admitted documents as read but the request was opposed by all respondents in the matter.
Further hearing in the petition by Obi and LP has been shifted to Monday June 5 by the Presiding Justice of the Court, Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani.
Earlier, hearing in the petition of the Allied People’s Movement (APM) was further shifted to June 9 by the Court to enable lawyers obtain the May 26 judgment of the Supreme Court that would determine whether the petition still has life to sustain it or not.
