May 08, (THEWILL) – The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) sitting at the Appeal Court in Abuja, has advised lawyers representing Peter Obi, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to meet and harmonise their briefs before the next adjourned date.
THEWILL earlier reported that the 5-member panel of the court, on Monday, adjourned pre-hearing in the Petition filed by Obi and the Labour Party (LP) against the declaration of Bola Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential election, to Wednesday, May 10, 2023, by 2pm
According to the pre-hearing form filled by Obi’s legal team led by Dr Livy Uzoukwu (SAN), the LP candidate is seeking “Applications for subpoena, objections, enforcement of order of court not obeyed by INEC and other applications arising in the course of the hearing.”
At the pre-hearing session on Monday, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), counsel for Bola Tinubu and his Vice President-elect, Kashim Shettima, said he already filed his response objecting to Obi’s submission.
The lawyer for INEC, Mahmoud Yakubu SAN, also submitted applications against Obi.
Subsequently, the five-man panel of the court led by Justice Haruna Tsammani, adjourned to May 10.
He advised parties to meet and resolve the issues that will be objected to in the case.
The pre-hearing session will pave the way for the main hearing where the panel would have drawn up the key issues for determination.
Obi, in his petition, maintained that Tinubu should be disqualified for not meeting the constitutional requirements of having the highest votes cast in 2/3 of the states in the country and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
