*INEC Closes Case In Atiku/PDP’s Petition With One Witness
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The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) yesterday admitted as exhibit the final report of the European Union Election Observer Mission faulting the conduct and outcome of the 2023 presidential election.
The February 25 election produced Bola Ahmed Tinubu as president of Nigeria.
Also yesterday at the tribunal, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) opened its defence of the presidential election without presenting any witness.
INEC was supposed to open its defence, but came to the court without any witness.
Its lead counsel, Abubakar Balarabe Mahmud (SAN), told the court of his plan to call three witnesses to counter the allegations of the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Gregory Obi.
He however lamented that none of the witnesses was in court due to domestic reasons for him to open the defense.
The senior lawyer pleaded with the court to bear with him and applied for adjournment of his defense.
However, lead counsel to Obi, Dr Livy Uzuoku (SAN), expressed shock and surprise with the conduct of the electoral body.
He told the court that INEC’s lawyer ought to have taken him into confidence before the commencement of the proceedings
The EU report tendered by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the election, Atiku Abubakar was, admitted as exhibit inspite of vehement objections by President Bola Tinubu, All Progressives Congress (APC) and INEC.
The European Union election observer mission had, in the report, claimed that the presidential election did not show credibility, fairness and transparency in the ways and manners it was conducted by INEC.
The report tendered through INEC’s sole witness and director of Information Technology (IT), Dr. Lawrence Bayode, said only 31 percent of the presidential election result was uploaded into INEC’s result viewing portal.
Before the admission of the report, Atiku through his lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche (SAN), had applied for cross examination of the INEC’S witness to be kick-started by Tinubu and the APC in view of their common interests against Atiku’s petition.
The application was however bluntly opposed by Tinubu and also APC, its lead counsel, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN).
The logjam that followed the application forced the 5-man tribunal members to rise into their Chambers to consult relevant laws on the mode of cross examination in such an instant case.
Upon resumption, the court ruled in favour of Atiku and ordered Tinubu and APC to first cross-examine the witness which they complied with.
Another application by Atiku that the INEC witness be made to read some critical portions of the European Union’s final report on the findings on the presidential election was also upheld in favour of the PDP presidential candidate in spite of opposition by Tinubu, APC and INEC.
Another objection by Tinubu and the APC against Atiku’s bid to cross examine the witness for 20 minutes was dismissed by the Court.
In his evidence in chief, Dr. Bayode had admitted that the electoral body has no electronic collation system for election results, hence, the presidential election result was not electronically collated.
Specifically, the INEC witness admitted that the collation of the presidential election results was done manually by the presiding officers of the electoral body.
Under cross examination by Atiku Abubakar’s lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche (SAN), the witness admitted that not all the presidential election results were uploaded into the INEC’s results viewing center as at March 1, 2023 when Tinubu was declared and returned as the winner of the February 25 presidential election.
While the witness told the court that there was a technical glitch that affected the uploading of the presidential election results, the witness, however, admitted under cross examination that such glitch was not reported to Amazon Web Services (AWS) by INEC.
Under cross examination by counsel to President Tinubu, the witness told the court that form EC8A formed the basis of the election results and that data and network service were required for the upload of the images of the results captured by the Biomodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machine.
He further testified that images captured on BVAS, whether transmitted electronically or manually, will not affect the integrity of the election, especially when results entered into form EC8A are announced to the hearing and knowledge of party agents.
The INEC sirector, while answering another question from Olanipekun said, the February 25 presidential election results announced in favour of Tinubu were free, fair, transparent and in substantial compliance with the provisions of the law.
Also under cross examination by Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), lead counsel to the APC, the witness admitted that glitches were experienced on the election day but the glitches did not affect the final results and scores of candidates at the election
With one witness and four documents tendered, INEC closed its defense in the petition filed by the former vice president against the declaration of Tinubu as winner of the February 25 presidential election.
Meanwhile, President Tinubu has been ordered to open the defense of his victory in the presidential election on Tuesday June 4, 2023 by the presiding justice of the Presidential Election Petition Court, Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani.
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