The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, and the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, have agreed not to kick against all documents that emanated from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in the conduct of the February 25 presidential election.
The documents must, however, be certified as true reflection of the original copies in line with the provisions of the law guiding admissibility of documents.
These resolutions were conveyed to the 5-man panel of Justices of the Presidential Election Petition Court hearing the joint petition of Atiku and PDP challenging the declaration of Tinubu as winner of the disputed election.
Chief Chris Uche SAN, leading the legal team for Atiku conveyed the decisions of the lawyers to the Court at Thursday’s proceedings.
Tinubu, represented by legal luminary, Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN and other lawyers, corroborated the position of Atiku not to object to all certified documents from the electoral body.
The senior lawyers said they jointly agreed to allow the documents to be freely scrutinized by the Court in order to arrive at just and fair conclusions in their judgment.
Leader of the legal team for the All Progressives Congress, APC, Prince Lateef Fagbemi SAN confirmed the same position to the Court.
He explained that they agreed to the decisions to allow the documents be tendered unhindered to make hearing of Atiku’s petition seamless.
The electoral body, through its counsel, Mr Abubakar Balarabe Mahmoud, said that his client would be ready to make all the required documents available at the appropriate time as a way of ensuring speedy and expeditious hearing of all the petitions challenging the presidential election.
Details later.
