By Agency Report
After calling 13 witnesses to justify his case against the February 25 election victory of President Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Peter Obi, on Friday, rested his case at the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja.
Mr Obi, who came third in the election, had planned to call 50 witnesses to prove his case that he was the winner of that election but in the end he had to make do with less than a third of that number because of some exigencies.
The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar who came second at the poll and is challenging the results, had similarly closed his case on Friday with 27 witnesses rather than the 100 he had promised to martial.
Both opposition candidates claim they won the elections and alleged that Mr Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared winner in error.
At the resumed hearing of Mr Obi’s suit on Friday, his lead counsel, Livy Uzoukwu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), led Tanko Yunusa, who was Mr. Obi’s presidential campaign spokesperson, in evidence.
Mr Yunusa was cross-examined by INEC’s lawyer, Kemi Pinheiro, a SAN, and Mr Tinubu and APC’s lawyers, Wole Olanipekun and Lateef Fagbemi, also SANs.
He was asked if he knew about a Federal High Court decision that dismissed the Labour Party’s suit challenging Vice President Kashim Shettima’s nomination over alleged double nomination but the witness denied any such knowledge even though he was a stalwart of the LP which filed the case.
Another of Mr Obi’s lawyers, Ikechukwu Ezechukwu, a SAN, invited one Peter Yari who was a presiding officer during the presidential election in Kaduna State as the 13th and last witness who under cross-examination admitted he had difficulty uploading the presidential election results on INEC’s Results Viewing Portal.
At the close of his testimony, Mr Obi’s lawyer, Mr Uzoukwu, told the court, “My Lords, that is the petitioners’ case.”
Afterwards, the court adjourned further hearing until 3 July for the respondents – Mr Tinubu, INEC and APC- to open their defence.
