PEPC examines Obi’s first video evidence

On Saturday, the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) watched the first video evidence that had been brought before it 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. Their petition bears the designation 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 allowed the flash drive containing the videos to be presented as evidence earlier.

The two videos were produced 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 being made for the election.

The second one was that of Festus Okoye, who is a National Commissioner for INEC and also the Chairman of the Committee for Information and Voter Education.

The videos were submitted as evidence by a witness from Channels TV named Lucky Obowo-Isawode, who was called as a subpoenaed witness.

Everyone who participated in the petition voiced opposition to the videos, but they chose to save their comments for their final written addresses.

Evidence in the form of EC40GEU was submitted by the petitioners on behalf of Benue’s six local government areas through the petitioners’ counsel, Jubrin Okitepa.

They additionally submitted form EC40OG(1) from one local area of Benue, as well as a copy of the form that was certified as true and accurate by INEC and was specific to Benue.

The evidence was all marked and then admitted by the judge.

The counsel for all of the respondents raised objections to it, but they said they would save their responses for their concluding written addresses.

In the meantime, the five-person bench presided over by Justice Haruna Tsammani decided to postpone further consideration of the petition until Tuesday.