The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has
shed light on why it kicked against the tendering of its documents as exhibits
by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Gregory Obi,
to establish his petition against the election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The electoral body had on Thursday vehemently objected to
the admission of several documents brought to the Presidential Election
Petition Court (PEPC) by Obi and the Labour Party for the purpose of tendering
them as exhibits to justify their petition.
However, at Friday’s proceedings, INEC lawyer Kemi Pinheiro
SAN, told the court that the electoral body kicked against the tendering of
certified true copies of the documents, mainly election result sheets, because
Obi and the Labour Party did not challenge the conduct of the election in the
areas relating to the documents.
Pinheiro explained that issues were not joined in the local
government areas where the result sheets were sought to be tendered, adding
that it was wrong of the petitioners to go beyond the areas where the election
is disputed.
He accused Obi of trying to confuse issues by bringing
result sheets where he did not dispute the election and the returns adding that
the presidential candidate ought to have guided himself with the pleadings in
his petition.
According to INEC, the local government areas unlawfully
smuggled into proceedings of the court are totally strange to the petition and
cannot stand in the face of the law.
INEC’s explanation offered while lawyers were ordered to
make an appearance, however, drew the anger of the Presiding Justice of the
Court, Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani.
Justice Tsammani held that it was wrong of INEC’s lawyer to
have smuggled the explanation into the proceedings because all parties in the
petition had agreed to offer such explanations at the address stage of
proceedings.
Pinheiro, in return, apologized to the court but said that
he was forced to speak up on the objections because of the deluge of criticisms
suffered in the media by his client.
The senior lawyer hinted that social media users had turned
his client to an object of ridicule without finding out reasons for objections
against the admissibility of the documents.
Meanwhile, the court has admitted as exhibits form EC8A from
21 local government areas of Adamawa and eight local government areas of
Bayelsa States and parts of Rivers and Niger State as tendered by Obi and the
Labour Party.
Peter Afoba, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria SAN, is conducting
proceedings for Obi and LP.
Earlier, hearing in the petition of the Allied People’s
Movement (APM) was further shifted to June 9 by the court to enable lawyers to
obtain the May 26 judgment of the Supreme Court that would determine whether
the petition still has life to sustain it or not.
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