The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, yesterday, closed his case at the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja calling 13 witnesses to prove his case against President Bola Tinubu’s election.
Obi had proposed to call 50 witnesses but could only call 13 within the court allotted time. He also tendered tons of electoral documents.
INEC, had declared Tinubu the winner of the 25 February election however displeased with the results, Obi, who came third in the election alongside Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who came second at the polls, filed a petition at the court to challenge Tinubu’s victory.
Obi and his party filed the petition 20 days after Tinubu was declared president-elect.
Atiku however also closed his case yesterday with 27 witnesses, although he had proposed to call 100.
Both opposition candidates claim Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) did not win the election.
At the resumed hearing of Obi’s suit yesterday his lead counsel, Livy Uzoukwu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), led Tanko Yunusa, a stalwart of the Labour Party, as a witness.
Yunusa, a Peter Obi Presidential Campaign Council spokesperson, was cross-examined by INEC’s lawyer, SAN Kemi Pinheiro.
Tinubu and APC’s lawyers, SAN Wole Olanipekun and SAN Lateef Fagbemi, also took their turns to question Yunusa during the cross-examination sessions
Yunusa was asked if he knew about a Federal High Court decision that dismissed the Labour Party’s suit challenging vice president Kashim Shettima’s nomination because of the alleged double nomination. He responded, “No.”
A lawyer in Obi’s legal team, SAN Ikechukwu Ezechukwu, invited Peter Yari to the witness box as the 13th petitioner’s witness in the case.
Yari was a presiding officer during the presidential election in Kaduna State. He adopted his witness statement on oath.
Under cross-examination by the respondents’ lawyers, Yari said he had difficulty uploading the presidential election results on INEC’s Results Viewing Portal.
At the close of his testimony, Obi’s lawyer, Uzoukwu, told the court, “My Lords, that is the petitioners’ case.”
The court then continued the hearing on July 3 so that the respondents, Tinubu, INEC, and APC could present their defense.
