Attempt by President Bola Tinubu and All Progressives Congress (APC) to stop petition by Allied People’s Movement (APM) challenging Tinubu’s qualification for the February 25, 2023 election suffered setback, yesterday.

At the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), Tinubu, through his lead counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun, had sought to use a Supreme Court judgment delivered on May 26, 2023 to terminate APM’s petition. The request was, however, turned down.

Tinubu’s grouse was that the sole issue in the petition had been resolved by the apex court in a suit filed by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He, therefore, prayed the court to invoke the spirit and letter of the judgment to halt hearing on APM’s petition.

The presiding judge, Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani, disagreed with Tinubu and held that the party could not be prevented from fair hearing.
Tsammani asked Tinubu to keep his objections against hearing of the petition to final address of the court’s proceedings.

The court also turned down similar objections by APC, through its counsel, Charles Edosomwan, for the same reason. Earlier, APM, through its lawyer, Gideon Idiagbonya, had informed PEPC on receipt of the Supreme Court judgment sought for termination of its petition.

The lawyer said upon perusal of the apex court judgment, he and his legal team concluded there was life in the petition and applied for its hearing.

He sought adjournment till June 26, to enable him obtain a vital document from Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to establish his case.

Tsammani, in a brief ruling, rejected a weeklong adjournment and fixed Wednesday, June 21, for hearing of the petition. Tinubu had, early this month, told the PEPC that the petition instituted against him and Vice President Kashim Shettima by APM died at the Supreme Court on May 26, 2023.

Meanwhile, three INEC presiding officers, yesterday, informed the PEPC that failure of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) to transmit presidential election results made their job frustrating.

The officers said results of Senate and the House of Representatives polls were transmitted without hassles but technical hitches began at the point of transmitting results of the presidential election.

The witnesses: Janet Nuhu Turaki, Christopher Bulus Ardo and Victoria Sani served in Yobe, Bauchi and Katsina states. They had been summoned by the court through a joint application of the PDP and its presidential candidate, Abubakar Atiku, to appear and give account of their experiences, in relation to transmission of results during the presidential election.

Turaki said accreditation of voters was successful but process became frustrating during uploading of results. She, however, informed the court that she and party agents signed collated results in Form EC8A. Ardo said he felt unfulfilled because he could not transmit results as required by law.

Sani said she could not remember the candidate that won the presidential poll in Katsina, insisting all did not go well because of inability to transmit results. Tsammani fixed today for continuation of hearing.

Also, Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, accused INEC of refusing to give them needed documents to prove their petition challenging the declaration of Bola Tinubu as winner of the presidential election.

Counsel for the petitioners, Jibrin Okutepa, informed the court of inability to get required documents from the electoral body, in spite of several letters.

“This segment is to formally bring to the notice of the court, the excruciating experience we are having from INEC,” Okutepa said, adding added that the electoral body released only few documents to the petitioners, yesterday afternoon.

“We have done everything humanly possible, including persuasion and letter writing. We decided to seek the help of the court,” he said.