Activities were on the upbeat at the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) on Thursday as the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the February 25 presidential election, Mr. Peter Obi and his party on confirmed that they would challenge the election results in 18 States of the federation only. They have opted not to dissipate energy in the states where they won convincingly and without any dispute.

However, at the end of the day’s proceedings, Obi and his party tendered certified electoral documents obtained from the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC in only six States. The documents mainly Forms EC8A , election results from polling units were admitted as exhibits to be used to establish their alleged riggings and other malpractices during the election.

Presiding Judge of the Court, Justice Haruna Tsammani admitted the documents as exhibits after they were tendered by Chief Emeka Okpoko Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN ) who conducted the Thursday’s proceedings on behalf of Mr. Obi and the Labour Party.

Interestingly, INEC represented by Mr. Kemi Pinhero SAN which issued the documents and certified them as genuine dramatically announced its decision to object to admission of the documents.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his Vice, Kashim Shettima who are 2nd and 3rd respondents and represented by Chief Adebayo Adelodun SAN also hinted to oppose the admissibility of the electoral documents. Also, the All Progressives Congress (APC) represented by Chief Afolabi Fashanu SAN argued that it would raise objections against the documents.

A breakdown of the tendered and admitted documents shows that Forms EC8A were tendered in 15 Local Government Areas of Rivers State, 23 in Benue, 18 in Cross River, 23 in Niger State, 20 in Osun and 16 in Ekiti Local Government Areas.

Meanwhile, further hearing in the petition has been shifted to June 2 by the Court at the instance of the two petitioners.

Atiku Presents First Witness

Also on Thursday, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubaka presented his first witness at the Presidential Election Petition Court.

Led in his evidence-in-chief by Chris Uche, Atiku’s lead Counsel, the witness, Mr Joe Agada, informed the court that there were rampant cases of manipulation of electoral records by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the February poll.

Mr Agada, a retired army captain, served as PDP’s State Collation agent in Kogi for the presidential election. Alhaji Abubakar’s legal team had on Wednesday tendered the presidential electoral documents, including those relating to local governments in Kogi State.

Mr Agada said he monitored the polls in 20 polling units across two senatorial districts in Kogi.

Under cross-examination by INEC’s lead Counsel , Mr. Abdullahi Aliyu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), the witness said Bimodal Voters Accreditation System “BVAS machines were manipulated during the conduct of the (presidential) election. I was forced to sign the collated result sheets in Lokoja,” Mr Agada added.

He explained that he signed the electoral documents under duress without further explaining the situation.The electoral documents earlier tendered by Mr Atiku’s team comprise printouts of data from BVAS machines and result sheets tendered before the court.

But President Tinubu’s counsel and counsel to INEC objected to the admissibility of the documents. They, however, did not disclose any rationale for their objections but promised to do so at the close of arguments in the petition.

Lawyers to parties in the petitions had pledged not to object to Certified True Copies (CTC) of electoral documents from INEC but the respondents have opposed the admissibility of many of the electoral records.