ABUJA/Nigeria: The Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja abruptly adjourned the hearing in former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s petition against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s election on Tuesday.
The adjournment was due to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s alleged refusal to provide critical electoral materials to Atiku.
The court postponed the hearing until June 7, pending INEC’s response to Atiku and the PDP’s request for document supply.
At the proceeding, Atiku’s Senior Advocate of Nigeria sought to tender forms EC8A from 10 out of 21 Local Government Areas of Kogi State to establish the petition against Tinubu. However, the Court noted that tendering such sensitive exhibits in piece meals would not be helpful, especially in the areas of marking and numbering them.
The Senior lawyer blamed the INEC for the deliberate refusal to supply his client with the vital documents. The legal team of the former Vice President had to subpoena top officials of INEC to compel them to bring the required documents before the Court on their own.
Following no objections from counsel to respondents, the court adjourned the matter until June 7.
