For the third time since the hearing of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal began, the legal team of Mr. Peter Obi and his Labour Party have slowed down proceedings.
The Tribunal court was forced to step down hearing in the petition against the election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, following a poor schedule of documents being sought to be tendered to establish the allegations of malpractices during the February 25 presidential election.
At Thursday’s proceedings, the Court discovered that the documents were not properly scheduled as ordered by it.
In the drama that ensued at the point of rendering the documents from the 23 local government areas of Benue, a lot of discrepancies were uncovered.
All efforts to reconcile the anomaly and reschedule the documents were unsuccessful as the errors were beyond immediate solution.
To save the situation, counsel to Obi and the Labour Party, Chief Emeka Okpoko SAN sought to use documents not filed to conduct the proceedings but the move was rejected on the ground of illegality.
In the end, the Court stepped down the hearing of the petition, ordering the legal team to go and re-file the schedule of documents in line with the provisions of the pre-hearing report.
The hearing of Obi’s petition had run into stormy waters three times, prompting the shift in the hearing of the petition.
At the time of filing this report, Peter Obi and the Vice Presidential candidate, Datti Baba Ahmed were in Court as their lawyers were running helter-skelter to the Court’s Registry to file a new schedule of documents.
Meanwhile, the five Justices led by Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani who are hearing the petition, have retired to their chambers to await the time the legal team will put its house in order.
