PRESIDENTIAL POLL: Obi forces court to adjourn petition over illness of two staff

The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), sitting in Abuja, on Wednesday, adjourned further proceedings on the petition filed by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, (LP), Peter Obi, after his lawyers pleaded for a shift due to the sudden illness of two of his key staff members who are part of the case.

Obi’s petition filed to challenge the outcome of the presidential election that held on February 25 which was won by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has suffered several adjustments and was last week, shifted to Wednesday, May 31.

But at the resumed sitting, his legal team led by Prof. Awa Kalu, (SAN), persuaded the PEPC to further adjourn the case as two of his key staff members, suddenly fell ill.

Kalu told the tribunal that the indisposition of the key staff whom he described as part of the engine room of his legal secretariat, “affected his plan to tender vital documents before the court to prove his allegation that the presidential election was rigged in favour of President Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC.”

“My lords, our plan for today’s proceedings was to start with the presentation of our documents, but unfortunately, we had some unexpected development,” the lawyer said.

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“The unexpected development concerns the sudden illness of two of our key staff, for which reason I am constrained to ask for an adjournment till tomorrow.

“It is with the greatest humility and apology that we make this application.

“I assure my lords that we will be here tomorrow morning and we will proceed with vigour,” Kalu pleaded with the court.

In his ruling, President of the PEPC, Justice Haruna Tsammani,
acceded to the application and again adjourned proceedings till Thursday following a no opposition response by the lawyers to President Tinubu Chief Olanipekun (SAN), and Abubakar Mahmood (SAN), representing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

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