Why Obi Lost At PEPT – His Lawyer, Livy Uzoukwu, SAN

By Gideon Njoku

An angry, hard-hitting and hard-fighting Lawyer to Peter Obi, the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, Dr Livy Uzoukwu, SAN, has said that his client lost at the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, because the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, made it difficult for Obi’s Legal Team to prove their case. He said that the obstacles INEC deliberately placed on the way were difficult to surmount.

Uzoukwu, who decried the PEPC September 6 judgement which affirmed the victory of the APC candidate, Bola Tinubu, in the February 25, 2023, Presidential Election, said he and his team are headed to the Supreme Court to seek redress.

By  placing of obstacles, Government institutions, like INEC, Uzoukwu said, litigants are gradually being forced to resort to self-help, which may not be legal to get justice.

The respected Lawyer, also, worried that if care was not taken, solid and sound “electoral jurisprudence would disappear in the country.”

Dr Uzoukwu who spoke after Tinubu’s victory at PEPC, said:  “If we are not careful, our electoral jurisprudence will eventually disappear. I am saying this with every amount of sincerity because when the litigant, when those who contested the election continue to find it very difficult to establish their case due to obstacles on the way, starting with INEC, certainly they may resort to some other means of trying to get justice, which may not be lawful.

“Also, I commend the Court of Appeal for introducing live streaming. You may recall that we applied to the court to have live streaming of all the proceedings, but the court, in its wisdom did not grant the application.

“So, I will hope and pray that this time, it will be continuous, starting from the beginning of a case.

“That is the only way that you can guarantee transparency because when something is open, Nigerians will see things for themselves and they will make up their minds, one way or the other.”

The cases filed against the declaration of Tinubu as President, by the LP, PDP and AMP, were dismissed by the five-man Panel of the PEPC for lacking in merit.