The Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 23, 2019, presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar on Friday tendered additional 26, 175 documents in support of his petition challenging the election of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The documents were tendered through his lead counsel, Dr Livy Uzoukwu (SAN) at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting at the Court of Appeal, Abuja.
Atiku had, on Thursday, kick-started hearing of his petition before Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba led tribunal when he tendered a total of 5, 196 documents as part of his efforts to establish case of electoral fraud and malpractices in the February 23 election that produced Buhari.
The documents tendered yesterday comprised mainly result sheets from polling units, wards and local governments in eight states, while receipts for certification of the documents from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were tendered and admitted as exhibits.
The eight states where the documents emanated from are Katsina, Kebbi, Borno, Jigawa, Gombe, Bauchi, Kaduna and partly Kano state.
The breakdown of the documents obtained from the eight states indicated that, 3, 378 came from Katsina, 2, 106 came from Kebbi, 3, 472 from Borno, 3, 162 from Jigawa, 1, 912 from Gombe, 3, 539 from Bauchi, 3, 335, from Kaduna and 5, 271 came from Kano.
Atiku’s counsel, while tendering the documents told the tribunal that the remaining ones from Kano state would be brought on Monday, being the next adjourned date.
Counsel to INEC, Yunus Ustaz Usman, that of Buhari, Mike Igbokwe (SAN) and that of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Charles Edosomwan (SAN) objected to the admissibility of the documents but however, informed the tribunal that reasons for their objection would be made at the address stage of hearing in the Petition.
The Vice Presidential candidate of the PDP in the election, Mr Peter Obi stood for the petitioners, while former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu stood for Buhari and Dare Oketade for the APC.
Meanwhile, the tribunal has adjourned the further hearing in the Petition till Monday, July 8, 2019.
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