On Saturday, the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) watched the first video evidence that was presented to them by Mr. Peter Obi and his party, the Labour Party.
Petitioners Obi and his Labour Party (LP) are challenging the results of the election that brought President Bola Tinubu into power. The petition is marked CA/PEPC/03/2023.
Respondents include both the president and vice president of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima, respectively, as well as the All Progressives Congress (APC).
On Saturday, when the court resumed its hearing of the petition, both of the videos in question were played in front of the judge.
The court had earlier agreed that the flash drive containing the videos should be considered admissible evidence.
The two videos were created as a result of two subpoenas that were served on the ChannelsTV station on the 30th of May and the 6th of June respectively.
The videos contained interviews with Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the Chairman of INEC, on the subject of the preparations for the election.
The second one was that of Festus Okoye, who is a National Commissioner and the Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee of INEC.
The videos were submitted as evidence by way of a witness from Channels TV named Mr. Lucky Obowo-Isawode, who was called as a subpoenaed witness.
Every single person who responded to the petition voiced their opposition to the videos, but they chose to save their full comments for their final written addresses.
The evidence was submitted by the petitioners through their counsel, Jubrin Okitepa, and was in the form of an EC40GEU. The petitioners submitted evidence from six different local government areas in the state of Benue.
In addition to this, they submitted form EC40OG(1) from one community in Benue, as well as a copy of the form that was certified by INEC as being an accurate representation of the original.
The court commented on each piece of evidence, and then it accepted it all.
The solicitors for all of the respondents raised objections to it, but they said they would save their responses for their concluding written addresses.
During this time, the five-member bench presided over by Justice Haruna Tsammani decided to postpone further hearing of the petition until the following Tuesday.
