The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was yesterday unable to open its defence at the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) sitting in Abuja following the absence of all three of its witnesses.
The electoral body was billed to bring forward its witnesses to defend the allegations levelled against it by the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Gregory Obi, who had alleged fraud in the result of the 2023 presidential election where President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was declared the winner.
At the sitting yesterday, when the case was called up for hearing, INEC, through its team of lawyers led by Mr Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN) informed the court that they have three witnesses to be called to counter the allegations levelled against it, but the witness scheduled to open the defence was not available.
INEC explained that its first witness which was to take the stand in the witness box was involved in a domestic issue.
The senior lawyer pleaded with the court to bear with him and applied for an adjournment of his defence.
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 the INEC lawyer ought to have taken him into confidence before the commencement of the proceedings.
However, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), who stood for President Bola Tinubu, and Prince Lateef Olasunkanmi Fagbemi (SAN), who represented the All Progressives Congress (APC), did not object to the request for adjournment of INEC’s plea for the case to be shifted.
Presiding Justice of the court, Justice Haruna Tsammani, subsequently fixed July 4 (today) for INEC to open its defence against Obi.
Recall that Obi had closed his case on June 23 after he tendered several shreds of evidence and called a total of 13 out of 50 witnesses he originally scheduled to testify before the court.
Among exhibits he tendered before the court included polling unit results from 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, as well as a bundle of documents containing the total number of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) that were collected in 32 states before the 2023 general elections.
He also tendered four video exhibits, one of which was a press conference, where the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, assured that the results of the election would be electronically transmitted to the iReV portal in real-time using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines.
Obi also tendered a bundle of documents that contained the total number of registered voters in each of the states.
*Commission presents one witness in Atiku’s defence, closes case
Also, INEC yesterday brought forward one witness to testify in the petition the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, filed to challenge the declaration of President Tinubu as the winner of the 2023 presidential election.
The witness, while being cross-examined by Tinubu’s lawyer, Olanipekun, said the presidential election that was held on February 25, was free, fair, and credible and conducted in substantial compliance with the Electoral Act.
The witness also told the Presidential Election Petition Court sitting in Abuja that the technical glitch that was experienced on Election Day, did not affect the result of the presidential candidates.
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The witness, however, admitted that the glitch was not reported to Amazon Web Services (AWS) by INEC but all scores remained the same as announced while answering APC’s counsel, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN).
He also said the results of the presidential election were manually collated, not electronically.
He explained that INEC does not have an electronic collation system which was why few days before the presidential poll, it announced that electronic transmission of the results of the election would not be feasible.
However, while being cross-examined by Atiku’s counsel, Chief Chris Uche, SAN, the witness, told the court that the European Union, EU, Observation Mission was accredited by INEC to monitor the 2023 general elections.
The witness was shown a certified copy of the EU’s report and asked to read from a portion of it, which was objected to by the respondents.
The court, however, denied the objection and told the witness to read.
The final report of the European Union Election Observer Mission faulted the conduct and outcome of the 2023 presidential election.
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.
Though the respondents opposed the admissibility of the report as part of the proof of evidence in the case, Justice Haruna Tsammani-led’s five-member panel of the court admitted it in evidence as Exhibit RA-6.
He also read a portion of the report that stated that “only 31% of results uploaded in I-REV was formally or mathematically correct.”
The witness, however, maintained that technological innovations that INEC introduced into the electoral process were to guarantee transparency and integrity of the results.
After the witness was dismissed from the witness box, INEC’s lawyer, told the court that his client would not call any other witness in the matter.
The court at the proceedings also granted the request by Tinubu to open his defence to petitions seeking to nullify his election today (Tuesday).
Tinubu, through his team of lawyers led by Olanipekun, applied to commence the process of defending his election victory, immediately after INEC closed its defence yesterday.
The electoral body equally tendered four documentary exhibits in evidence, among which included a letter dated July 6, 2022, which the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, wrote to notify it of his decision to withdraw as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, for the Borno Central Senatorial election.
Led in evidence by INEC’s lead counsel, Mr. Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN, the witness, Mr. Lawrence Bayode, who is a Deputy Director of ICT at the Commission, tendered the letter and its accompanying certification, which was admitted in evidence and marked as Exhibits RA-1 and RA-2.
