Proceedings at the Presidential Election Petitions Court suffered a hitch on Tuesday forcing the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and his party to seek adjournment to enable them to file a more comprehensive document.

Mr. Eyitayo Jegede, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) had began the day by informing the court that he intends to tender from the bar some documents that they were available to the Petitioners. According to him, the first respondent, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was subpoenaed to release some documents to the Petitioners.

The Petitioners’ counsel had successfully tendered a Certified True Copy (CTC) of a Notice of discontinuance in respect of Suit SC/CV/354/2023 between AG. Adamawa and six others which was opposed to by INEC Lead counsel Mr. A. B. Mahmoud, Mr. Dele Adesina counsel to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Chief (Mrs) Olabisi Soyebo counsel to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Mr. Jegede’s attempt to tender the second set of documents (EC8B) from Kogi state, however, had some difficulty as a result of some secretariat challenges.

His attempt to wriggle out of the challenge made him to argue with the judges which did not go down well with the bench.

The Presiding Judge, Justice Haruna Tsammani at a stage said:”Mr. Jegede, I don’t like the way you are arguing with us. It is not good”, a comment that made Alhaji Abubakar’s counsel to apologise.

Counsels to the respondents complained on the uncoordinated nature of the documents , arguing that it would make their jobs difficult. That was after they had objected to the admissibility of the documents.

Taking a cue from the court, Mr. Jegede sought adjournment to enable him file a comprehensive document.
Justice Tsammani adjourned the case till tomorrow.

But the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) Mr. Peter Obi and the LP on Tuesday tendered Form EC8B in 17 states of the federation.

His counsel, Chief Ben Anachebe tendered the documents state by state.

They are Adamawa 21 Local Government Areas (LGAs), Bayelsa eight LGAs, Benue 23 LGAs, Kogi 21LGAs, Nasarawa 11 LGAs,Niger 25 LGAs, Ondo 18 LGAs and Sokoto 21 LGAs.

Others are Delta 25 LGAs,Ekiti 11 LGAs,Imo 25LGAs,Kaduna 21LGAs, Oyo 21LGAs, Cross River 18LGAs, Edo 15 LGAs, Akwa Ibom 31 LGAs and Lagos 20 LGA.

Mr. Steve Adehi SAN ,counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC),Chief Mike Igbokwe SAN counsel to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima and Prof. Mamma Lawal Yusufari SAN all objected to the admissibility of the documents. They , however, reserved the reasons for their objections to the final address stage.

Speaking to journalists after the court session,Dr Levi Uzoukwu ( SAN) said he was happy that the evidence of Mr. Obi and the Labour Party are going in smoothly.
He said with a lot of documents, there may be no need for a lot of witnesses may not be necessary.

The case was adjourned till Wednesday.