The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja deferred pre-hearing in the petition filed by Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate Peter Obi against President-Elect Bola Tinubu on Wednesday to Friday, May 19.
At the request of the petitioners, the Tribunal deferred the pre-hearing session on Obi and the LP's plea until May 17.
On Wednesday, the justices arrived to begin the day's proceedings and also refused to recognize the party's representation other than Obi.
Obi is challenging the electoral victory of Tinubu in the February 25, 2023 polls as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
However, a small drama ensued between the two Labour Party camps over which group should be in court.
The court headed by Justice Haruna Tsammani fixed the date following the failure of parties in the petition to agree on documents, among other reasons.
It would be recalled that during the sitting on Wednesday, the legal team of the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, led by Livy Uzoukwu, accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of failing to provide what they needed to prosecute their case.
The legal team told the court at the resumed hearing of the 2023 presidential election tribunal in Abuja that INEC refused to give them 70% of the evidence that they are required to give by law.
The team said specifically in Rivers State that they were not given anything. However, counsel for INEC, Abubakar Mahmoud, disagreed with the allegations.
He argued that the Labor Party team did not show up for the meeting as agreed and walked out of the rescheduled meeting.
The INEC lawyer added that the documents for Rivers and Sokoto states were indeed provided, but the Labour Party refused to pay the sum of 1.5 million naira for Sokoto State, and the Form EC8A for Rivers State has not been given to them.
He said some documents were given to the party, but they refused to collect them until it was complete.
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