INEC calls one witness, closes case in Obi, LP’s petition

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has closed its defence in the petition filed by Peter Obi and the Labour Party (LP) before the presidential election petition court.

At the court session on Tuesday, Lawrence Bayode, an information technology practitioner, was led in evidence by Abubakar Mahmoud, INEC counsel.

Before the witness was called, INEC tendered some documents which were admitted and marked as exhibits.

During cross-examination, Bayode said blurred documents downloaded from the result viewing portal do not affect the polling unit results recorded in forms EC8As.

He said photographic copies of forms EC8A captured with the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS) and transmitted to IReV, are not relevant for the collation of results.

The witness also told the court that the glitch recorded during the presidential poll did not affect the credibility of election results.

He said only physical results (forms EC8As) are used for collating final election results.

After the witness was discharged, Mahmoud told the court that they had no other witness to call.

Wole Olanipekun, counsel to President Bola Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima, told the court that he would open their defence on Wednesday.

The five-member panel led by Haruna Tsammani thereafter adjourned the case to Wednesday. 

In the petition marked CA/PEPC/03/2023, Obi and the LP are challenging Tinubu’s victory in the February 25 presidential election.