On Wednesday, lawyers representing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), President Bola Tinubu, and the All-Progressives Congress (APC) joined forces in court to oppose the submission of certified true copies of INEC Forms EC8Es from 24 Local Government Areas of Kaduna and 18 out of 23 LGAs of Kogi State by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, before the Presidential Election Petition Court.
The previous day, the PDP had presented exhibits including the 2023 Presidential Election Results, INEC Forms EC8A (which summarizes the presidential election results), Form EC8E series for all states and the Federal Capital Territory, INEC certified documents regarding the number of collected PVCs for the election, and the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machine-printed report for all states.
Objections were raised against the BVAS reports, but the court admitted the exhibits based on a pre-hearing report that specified no objections to INEC certified documents at the point of tendering.
During Wednesday’s session, the PDP’s lawyer applied to present additional Forms EC8A downloaded from INEC for various states, as well as certified true copies of Forms EC8Es from Kaduna and Kogi states and other electoral materials. INEC’s counsel objected to the tendering of all the certified electoral documents except for five local government areas in Kogi State.
Tinubu and APC’s legal team also objected to the admissibility of the documents, aligning with INEC’s stance. The PDP requested that the bulky electoral documents already tendered be considered as read by the court, but Tinubu and APC’s counsels refused consent.
Despite the objections, the Presidential Election Petition Court’s panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani admitted the electoral documents presented by the PDP.
Earlier, the PDP informed the court that their second schedule of documents was served on the respondents. INEC raised concerns about the timing of document submission, as the schedule was provided less than 30 minutes before the proceedings, in violation of the court’s order.
The PDP argued that the delay was due to difficulties in obtaining the documents from INEC, despite having already paid for them.
The panel reminded the PDP to adhere to the agreement among parties to submit their document lists at least one day before the proceedings and avoid breaching protocol. Lawyers from INEC and PDP agreed to cooperate regarding access to electoral documents and the timely filing of document lists.
