The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) has postponed a hearing for the third time regarding a petition filed by Peter Gregory Obi and the Labour Party (LP) against the election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The case was adjourned due to a mishandled schedule of documents that were supposed to substantiate allegations of malpractices during the February 25 presidential election.
At the resumed proceeding on Thursday, the court found that the documents did not comply with their order. During the submission of documents related to 23 local government areas of Benue, the court found several discrepancies.
Efforts to correct these discrepancies and reschedule the documents were fruitless as the errors seemed insurmountable.
As a last resort, the counsel to Obi and the Labour Party, Chief Emeka Okpoko (SAN), attempted to use documents not originally filed for the hearing. This move was rejected on grounds of illegality.
In the end, the hearing was postponed and the court ordered the legal team to re-submit the document schedule according to the pre-hearing report requirements.
This was the third time Obi’s petition hearing hit a roadblock, causing another delay.
At the time of reporting, Peter Obi and Vice Presidential candidate, Datti Baba Ahmed, were present in court while their lawyers were hastily re-filing documents at the court registry.
Hoping for a better presentation, the five Justices, led by Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani, retired to their chambers, awaiting the legal team’s reorganization.