By Charles Adingupu
Fears that challenging the results of the February 25 presidential election in court may not yield any appreciable outcome are gradually coming to fruition as
the Presidential Election Petition Court on Thursday, stepped down hearing in the petition filed by Peter Obi and the Labour Party against the election of President Bola Tinubu.
The Court cited improper schedule of documents tendered before the court by Obi’s counsel as proof of allegations of malpractices during the February 25 presidential election.
The court noted some inconsistencies in the documents from the 23 Local Government Areas of Benue State and directed the plaintiffs to arrange them in proper order but efforts to reconcile the differences proved unsuccessful.
The decision of the counsel to Obi and the Labour Party, Chief Emeka Okpoko, SAN, to use documents not previously filed in their petition to conduct the proceedings was rejected by the court on the ground of illegality.
The court thereafter stepped down hearing of the petition and ordered the legal team to go and re-file the schedule of documents in line with the provisions of the pre-hearing report.
Peter Obi and the Vice Presidential candidate of LP, Datti Baba Ahmed, alongside the leaders of the Party, were in the court, to witness the proceedings.
The five Justices led by Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani hearing the petition had retired to their chambers while Obi’s legal team struggled to reconcile their documents.
