Tribunal Criticises Labour Party For Lack Of Preparation, Adjourns Hearing

The Presidential Election Petitions Court has criticised the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, for exhibiting a lack of preparedness in the petition filed against the victory of President Bola Tinubu.

At the resumed hearing on Thursday, one of the senior lawyers in the petitioners’ legal team, Emeka Okpoko, sought to tender electoral documents as exhibits before the court but the documents were said to not have been properly filed and scheduled before the court.

Consequently, the court stepped down the hearing for 10 minutes and asked the legal team to re-file the schedule of documents in line with the provisions of the pre-hearing report.

However, after the court reconvened, the petitioners’ legal team still seemed uncoordinated.

Displeased, the five-man panel of Justices led by Haruna Tsammani, advised the petitioners to seek an adjournment to enable them properly arrange their documents.

They described what has been done today as a waste of time, saying that the counsels for the petitioners underrated the kind of job they had to do.

Rsponding, Awa Kalu, another senior lawyer in the petitioners’ team, said they won’t be taking the adjournment suggested by the court, but will tender the 16 Local Government Areas.

Six states have been tendered so far by the Labour Party.

The case has been adjourned to June 2 for continuation of hearing.