Election Petition: Court Admits Obi’s First Witness Exhibit of Tinubu’s Alleged Drug Case

With the opening of the hearing on Tuesday, May 30, 2023, Labour Party candidate in the 25 February presidential election, Peter Obi, called his first witness to testify before the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), sitting in Abuja.

Obi and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), are challenging the emergence of Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), as president.

Obi’s first witness, Mr Lawrence Nwakaeti, who informed the court that he is from Ihiala in Anambra State, identified a document relating to a court proceeding in the United States pertaining to Tinubu’s alleged indictment in a drug-related-case.

While the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), through its lead counsel, Mr Abubakar Mahmood, SAN, said it was not opposed to the admissibility of the document, Tinubu and the APC opposed it.

Tinubu and the APC, however, said they would reserve their reasons for opposing the document, in their final briefs of argument.

Consequently, the five-member panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani admitted the document in evidence and marked it as Exhibit PA- 5.

The court also admitted in evidence, INEC documents on the double nomination of Kashim Shettima, the Vice President, and adjourned to Wednesday,  31st May 2023 for the continuation of the hearing.