In response to Peter Obi’s petition contesting the outcome of the presidential election on February 25, the Independent National Electoral Commission on Tuesday began and ended its defense.
Recall that on May 29, Bola Tinubu, the election’s declared victor, took the oath of office.
On the grounds that the Independent National Electoral Commission did not follow the law, Obi of the Labour Party is pleading with the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja to annul Tinubu’s victory.
After calling the first witness, Lawrence Bayode, an assistant director in charge of its ICT department, at the Tuesday hearing that was continued, INEC’s attorney, A.B. Mahmoud, SAN, went on to wrap up the defense.
In support of the commission’s defense against the appeal submitted by Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, Bayode had also provided testimony yesterday.
A.B. Mahmoud, SAN, the chief attorney for the commission, escorted him into the witness stand and also offered various papers throughout the trial.
The witness said during cross-examination that the physical results recorded in the polling units results, also known as form EC8A, would not be impacted even if papers with blurred text were obtained from INEC’s Result Viewing page.
According to him, the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System images of forms EC8A that were sent to IReV are irrelevant for the results compilation.
When questioned by L.O. Fagbemi, SAN, counsel for the All Progressives Congress, the witness informed the court that the fault discovered during the most recent presidential election had no impact on the compilation of the results.
He said that physical results may also be acquired if the information downloaded from the IreV was unclear.
The petitioners also submitted a compliance form and an E- transfer saver web through the witness. It was acknowledged and noted as testimony.
The pre-production test was conducted before the election, according to the witness’ testimony in court.
The witness concurred with Patrick Ikweato, SAN, counsel for the petitioners that the E-Transmission application report identifies remedial to be conducted to overcome the high vulnerability mentioned in the report.
The court procedure was postponed by the five-member panel, presided over by Justice Haruna Tsammani, until tomorrow (Wednesday), when Tinubu and his vice, Kassim Shetima, will present their defense.
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