For the second time at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, on Wednesday, September 6, 2023, Obi and the Labour Party have lost.
On the heels of PEPC’s dismissal of their case of alleged massive rigging because they, according to PEPC, failed to list the specific polling units where rigging took place, PEPC has also dismissed the evidence of 10 out of the 13 witnesses called Obi and LP to support of their petition against the declaration of President Bola Tinubu as winner.
In one of the judgments, the Court said that the witnesses, subpoenaed at the instance of Obi/LP had their written statements, which contained their evidence, not filed along or frontloaded with the petition within the 21 days allowed by the Electoral Act 2022.
In the lead judgment delivered by Justice Haruna Tsammani, PEPC rejected the documents, including the report of analysis, tendered by the petitioners through the affected 10 witnesses.
It held that “some of the witnesses are not only persons with interest in the outcome of the case, the reports they tendered were made during the pendency of the case.”
Details later.
