On Wednesday, the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) warned lawyers representing Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate Peter Obi and those representing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) against making disparaging remarks about one another.
During Wednesday’s hearings, Peter Obi’s lead counsel, Livy Uzoukwu (SAN), accused the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, of failing to appear in court.
Uzoukwu stated at the resumed hearing of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) in Abuja that the INEC Chairman has refused to accept a subpoena from the court’s bailiff.
Following his submission, he requested that the case be adjourned.
Oluwakemi Pinheiro (SAN), one of the counsels defending INEC, contradicted Uzoukwu, stating the petitioners are attempting to blame his client for their own shortcomings.
According to Pinheiro, Obi’s legal team has made it a habit to continually look for a pretext to seek an adjournment.
“Do not use INEC as a scapegoat.”
They should just stay if they have nothing else to do today. It’s their big day. It is incorrect that the INEC Chairman’s office refused to receive a subpoena.
“This habit demonstrates that you are only stalling the case.” “You’ve only called two witnesses out of the 50 you said you’d call, and the tribunal has been running for two weeks,” the counsel added.
In response to the outburst, the five-member panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani instructed the lawyers to refrain from disparaging one another.
“If there is anything that INEC is doing, you know what to do,” Justice Tsammani instructed Uzoukwu.
The panel also ordered the lawyers to “calm down,” adding that no matter how the case turned out, “we are still friends.”
Following that, the court deferred the hearing to Thursday.