Victor Ezeja
The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPT) has adjourned the trial of the petition filed by the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, till Wednesday, May 10.
This was revealed in a tweet on Monday by Kenneth Okonkwo, the spokesperson for the Labour Party presidential campaign council.
Join our WhatsApp Channel“After a brief pre-hearing trial, the case was adjourned to Wednesday, 10th May, 2023 at 2 pm prompt. With me is Alex Ejesieme SAN,” Okonkwo tweeted around 1pm on Monday.
He had earlier announced via his Twitter handle, the presence of Obi’s legal team in the court.
The team is led by Livy Uzoukwu SAN.
Prime Business Africa reports that the trial of the case filed by Obi began today, Monday, 8th May.
Obi had filed a petition challenging the outcome of the 25th February presidential election in which Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
According to INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu, who announced the final results in the early hours of Wednesday, March 1, 2023, in Abuja, Tinubu scored 8, 794,726 votes to defeat his closest rival Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who polled 6,984,520 votes.
Obi was announced third in the election with a total of 6,101,533 votes.
Obi in the petition filed alongside his party, is also challenging the eligibility of Tinubu and his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima, to contest for the seats.
Apart from Labour Party, the PDP, Action Alliance (AA), Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and Action Peoples Party (APP) had also filed petitions to challenge Tinubu’s victory.
The presiding judge representing the tribunal panel, Justice Haruna Simon Tsammni on Monday postponed the hearing of their petitions to Tuesday.
The Tribunal also struck out the petition by the Action Alliance (AA) challenging the declaration of Tinubu as the winner of the presidential election.
The Action Alliance (AA) earlier withdrew its petition at the Presidential Election Petition Court sitting in Abuja, prompting the dismissal.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with seven years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Master's degree in Mass Communication.
