There are indications that the Labour Party and Mr. Peter Obi are refusing to cooperate with the court in respect of documents to be tendered before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, ongoing at the Court of Appeal.
This emerged at the proceedings on Wednesday 17th May 2023, when leading counsel to Mr. Obi, Mr. Livy Uzoukwu, SAN complained of their inability to obtain some electoral documents from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC in respect of Rivers and Sokoto States.
However, lead counsel to INEC, Mr. Mahmud, SAN, drew the court’s attention to Mr. Uzoukwu’s letter, in which Mr. Peter Obi and the Labour Party expressed their inability to make the required statutory payments to INEC, for the issuance of the certified true copies of the said documents. Mr. Mahmud also drew the court’s attention to the fact that counsel to the Labour Party and Peter Obi also walked out of the meeting scheduled for the identification of relevant documents, thereby, stalling the progress of the proceedings.
In his address to the court, counsel for Senator Bola Tinubu, Chief Wole Olanipeukn, SAN, drew the court’s attention to section 104(1) of the Evidence Act, which mandates the payment of statutory fees as a condition precedent for the issuance of certified true copies of documents by any public officer.
