Following the second court session on Wednesday, Kenneth Okonkwo, one of the spokespersons for the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council, disclosed the information.

The court adjourned after a brief petition hearing, according to Okonkwo, who also appeared in court as one of the Labour Party, LP’s legal representatives.

He wrote: “After a brief hearing of the matter, the court adjourned to Wednesday, 17 May 2023, for a continuation of hearing…I will keep you posted. We believe in God for a positive outcome with your supplications to God.”

The Justice Haruna Tsammani-led five-member panel had its inaugural sitting on Monday and a continuation of the pre-hearing trial on Wednesday.

The minister made this statement on Wednesday in London in response to Elder Statesman and Pan Niger Delta Forum leader Chief Edwin Clark’s demand that he be detained and charged with disseminating “fake news” against Obi.

Mohammed insisted that his counsel to Obi and his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, was never founded on untruth and that he stuck by it.

“What will be my offence? Is it by chiding vice presidential candidate of the Labour Party who said on live television that if the President-elect Bola Tinubu is sworn-in on May 29 that that would be the end of democracy in Nigeria?

“Is it for chiding him for saying that swearing in Tinubu on May 29 is like swearing in the military?

“What is the fake news in that?” the minister queried.

He said Baba-Ahmed had never denied his statement made on the live television

The chairman of the electoral body, Mahmood Yakubu, gave the assurance when Labour Party’s legal head, Dr. Livy Uzoukwu, led a 60-man legal team to a meeting with representatives of INEC in Abuja on Monday to discuss modalities for obtaining the documents.

Saying the commission has nothing to hide, Yakubu further assured that Resident Electoral Commissioners at the state level would also make available necessary documents to the party speedily.

He said, “INEC has nothing to hide. Documents available at the HQ will be given immediately. We are meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners today and we will discuss how other documents at the state level could also be made available to you speedily.”

Recall that INEC had come under fire for its failure to upload the results of the presidential election from all polling units across the federation to its Results Viewing Portal on election day.

Consequently, party agents of the Labour Party, the Peoples Democratic Party and some others, had staged a walkout from the National Collation Centre in Abuja in protest against the collation and results announced by the commission.

Ignoring the agitation of the opposition parties, INEC in the early hours of Wednesday, March 1, 2023, declared Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, President-elect and winner of the election. Tinubu polled about 8.8 million votes ahead of his rivals in the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, who polled 6.9 million votes and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, who polled 6.1 million votes.

Dissatisfied with the election results and declaration, the Labour Party had approached the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to grant it permission to inspect the election materials used by the commission during the February 25 polls, including the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, which was the major technology deployed during the polls to enhance a free and free process.

However, INEC, in a countersuit, prayed the court to grant it permission to reconfigure the BVAS ahead of the governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections.

Granting the electoral body permission to reconfigure the BVAS used in the presidential election, the commission has however assured the Labour Party that the information on the BVAS would be backed up for their inspection and has now promised that all documents requested by the party will be made readily available to the party.