PRESIDENTIAL TRIBUNAL – INEC CLOSES DEFENSE IN OBI’S SUIT
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By Adeniyi Onaara
On Tuesday, the Independent National Electoral Commission began and ended its defense in Peter Obi’s appeal disputing the outcome of the presidential election on February 25.
Remember that Bola Tinubu was declared the election winner and sworn in as president on May 29.
Obi of the Labour Party has petitioned the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja to annul Tinubu’s victory, claiming that the Independent National Electoral Commission violated electoral laws.
On Tuesday, INEC’s counsel, A.B Mahmoud, SAN, closed its defence in the petition after calling the first witness, Lawrence Bayode, an assistant director in charge of its ICT department.
Bayode also testified yesterday in support of the commission’s defense against the appeal brought by Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar.
A.B. Mahmoud, SAN, the commission’s lead counsel, led him in evidence and also offered several papers during the proceedings.
Under cross-examination, the witness stated that even if blurred documents were downloaded from INEC’s Result Viewing page, it would not change the physical results as recorded in the polling unit results, also known as form EC8A.
He stated that the photographs of forms EC8A taken with the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System and forwarded to IReV are unimportant for results collation.
When questioned by All Progressives Congress counsel, L.O Fagbemi, SAN, the witness told the court that the glitch recorded during the last presidential election did not affect the collation of the election results.
He added that if what was downloaded from the IreV are not clear the physical results could also be obtained.
The petitioners also tendered the E- transmission saver Web and compliance form through the witness. It was admitted and marked as evidence.
The witness told the court that the pre-production test was carried out before the election.
The witness agreed with counsel for the petitioners, Patrick Ikweato, SAN, that the report of the E-Transmission application identifies remediation to be undertaken to resolve the high vulnerability identified in the report.
The five-member panel headed by Justice Haruna Tsammani adjourned the court proceeding to tomorrow (Wednesday) when Tinubu and his vice, Kassim Shetima will open their defence.
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