Politics
PEPT: Court Admits Peter Obi’s Evidence Despite Objections, Adjourns Proceedings
In the Presidential Election Petition Court, on Thursday, electoral documents from six states in Nigeria presented by Peter Obi were admitted as evidence.
These documents, which included polling unit results in the form of EC8A, were submitted by the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
They presented these documents to support their legal challenge against the outcome of the February 25 elections, in which Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress was declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
During the court proceedings, the petitioners, represented by their legal team led by Awa Kalu SAN, informed the court that they intended to present Certified True Copies of the documents as evidence for a total of 18 states in the federation.
However, due to time constraints, they were only able to present documents from six states before their allotted time expired.
Before their allotted time expired, the petitioners in the Presidential Election Petition Court presented result sheets from several Local Government Areas (LGAs) of different states.
The result sheets tendered included forms EC8A from the following states: Rivers, Benue, Cross River, Niger, Osun, and Ekiti.
Specifically, among the forms EC8As presented, 15 of them were from Local Government Areas in Rivers state. It is worth noting that the petitioners initially informed the court of their intention to present result sheets from 21 LGAs in Rivers state.
However, during their presentation, they were unable to reconcile the list and ultimately tendered 15 forms as evidence.
The respondents in the petition raised objections to the admissibility of the Certified True Copies of the documents stating that they would provide detailed reasons for their objections in their final written addresses.
The President, Bola Tinubu, represented by a team of lawyers led by Wole Olanikpekun SAN, objected to the tendering of the documents.
Additionally, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) expressed its opposition to the admissibility of the documents. The All Progressives Congress (APC) also opposed the documents being presented as evidence.
Furthermore, INEC’s legal team, led by Kemi Pinheiro SAN, also opposed the admissibility of the documents in question.
Despite the objections raised by the respondents, the five-man panel of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), led by Justice Haruna Tsammani, admitted the documents from the 15 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Rivers state which were marked as Exhibits PB1 to PB15.
Additionally, the court also admitted other documents as evidence, including electoral forms from 23 LGAs in Benue state marked as Exhibits PT1 to PT23.
Furthermore, the Presidential Election Petition Court admitted the results of the presidential election from 18 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Cross River state, which were marked as Exhibits PD1 to PD18. The court also admitted results from LGAs in Niger State, Osun, and Ekiti as evidence.
Following the admission of these documents, the panel adjourned further proceedings in Peter Obi’s petition to June 2, 2023, for continuation.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has rejected the outcome of the Ondo State governorship election, accusing the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of electoral malpractice, including vote-buying and result manipulation.
This was disclosed during a meeting of the PDP Governors’ Forum on Saturday in Jos, Plateau State.
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The forum, chaired by Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed, criticized the conduct of the election, which saw APC’s Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa secure a landslide victory for another four-year term in Alagbaka, Akure.
“We are still reviewing documents from the Ondo election, where the APC openly bought votes and manipulated results,” Mohammed said.
He urged the judiciary to “save Nigerian democracy” and called on the National Assembly to strengthen electoral laws to prevent what he described as “institutional sabotage of the people’s will.”
The PDP governors also condemned the September governorship election in Edo State, describing it as a “rape of democracy.”
The forum accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of colluding with the APC to declare its candidate the winner despite claims that the PDP candidate, Asue Ighodalo, had secured the majority of lawful votes.
“INEC blatantly manipulated the results in favor of the APC candidate. This undermines the credibility of our electoral process,” Mohammed said.
Beyond electoral grievances, the governors urged the PDP’s National Working Committee (NWC) to convene a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting by February 2025.
They emphasized the need for broader consultations with stakeholders to resolve the party’s internal leadership crisis and strengthen its position as the main opposition party.
The forum reiterated its commitment to democratic values and vowed to push for electoral reforms that would restore public confidence in Nigeria’s electoral process.
The Ondo governorship election has sparked a renewed call for transparency in the country’s electoral system, with the PDP vowing to challenge what it views as a subversion of democracy.
Following his observations that ‘the momentum was strong’ Matt Gaetz whom 47th POTUS elect, Donald Trump nominated for Attorney General has withdrawn.
Biztellers reports that this follows his meeting with Senate and the feedback, which included two women, represented by their attorneys, who accused him of having paid for sex.
Consequently, Gaetz placed on record his full commitment to seeing “that Donald J. Trump is the most successful President in history.”
His withdrawal according his statement on micro-blogging site, X, was based on his conviction that “There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle”.
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In is view, “Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1”.
Gaetz wrote, “I had excellent meetings with Senators yesterday. I appreciate their thoughtful feedback – and the incredible support of so many. While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition. There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General. Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1.
“I remain fully committed to see that Donald J. Trump is the most successful President in history. I will forever be honored that President Trump nominated me to lead the Department of Justice and I’m certain he will Save America.”
His backers have promptly encouraged to take his seat in the House of Representatives, having been elected to the house under the flag of the Republicans to represent Florida.
The Executive Governors from Nigeria’s South West have unanimously nominated Senator Ademola Adeleke as the chairman of the zone on the National Economic Council (NEC).
Adeleke is the Executive Governor of Osun State, southwest, Nigeria.
This, according to the Spokesperson to Governor Adeleke, Olawale Rasheed, transpired on Thursday, at a meeting of the NEC.
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He noted that the meeting reviewed the state of Nigeria’s electricity sector and resolved to engage subnational structures to address current challenges in the sector.
“The meeting particularly sought to build on the devolution of the electricity sector and its movement into the concurrent legislative list which empowers state governments to regulate the sector in their respective areas,” he stated.
Consequently, the NEC, therefore set up an ad hoc committee to review actions in the sector by state governments and explore ways to ramp up activities through coordination, Rasheed highlighted.
The full list of members of NEC’s Ad-hoc Committee on National Electrification:
- Governor of Cross Rivers State, Bassey Out – Chairman, South-South
- Governor of Katsina State, Mallam Dikko Umaru Radda – Chairman, North-West
- Governor of Gombe State, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya – Chairman, North-East
- Governor of Osun State, Senator Ademola Adeleke – Chairman, South-West
- Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma – Chairman, South-East
- Governor of Plateau State, Barr. Caleb Mutfwang – Chairman, North-Central
- Hon. Minister of Finance, Wale Edun
- Hon. Minister of Budget and National Planning, Atiku Bagudu
- Special Adviser, NEC and Climate Change, Rukaiya El-Rufai
- Special Adviser, Power Minister, Hon. Bolaji Tunji
- MD/CEO Rural Electrification Agency, Abba Aliyu
- MD/CEO Niger Delta Power Holding Company, Jennifer Adighije
- Chairman, Nigeria Governors Forum, AbdulRahman AbdulRazak
- NEC Secretariat
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