President Tinubu set to defend presidential election win at PEPC on Tuesday
President Bola Tinubu is set to defend his victory in the February 25 presidential polls on Tuesday at the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC).
The defence comes in response to a petition filed by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku.
Mr Wole Olanipekun, SAN, the counsel representing President Tinubu, confirmed this development on Monday, following the closure of the case by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) against Atiku, with the testimony of a single witness.
INEC presented its case and called Mr Lawrence Bayode as their lone witness, who introduced himself as a Deputy Director of ICT for the commission.
Under cross-examination by Olanipekun, the witness affirmed that the presidential election was conducted in accordance with the Electoral Act of 2022 and was deemed free, fair, and credible.
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He also stated that the technical glitch that occurred on election day did not affect the actual scores of the presidential candidates, as the polling officers manually computed them using the forms EC8As at the various polling units.
Additionally, Bayode clarified that INEC did not have an electronic collation system, and the results of the presidential election were manually collated, not electronically.
During the proceedings, Mr Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, the counsel representing the All Progressives Congress (APC), confronted the witness with a publication from the Tribune newspaper, where INEC announced a few days before the election that it would no longer proceed with the electronic transmission of results.
The document was admitted into evidence, despite objections from Mr Chris Uche, SAN, the counsel representing the petitioners.
Uche then asked the witness if he was aware of the European Union Observer Mission Report on the Presidential Election. While the witness confirmed awareness of the report, he admitted that he had not read it.
The respondents objected to the document being tendered as evidence but reserved their reasons for the final address stage. However, the court admitted the document into evidence and marked it accordingly.
Uche proceeded to present a certified true copy of the report and asked the witness to read a section stating that only 31 percent of the presidential election results uploaded on the IREV were mathematically correct, highlighting the inadequate training provided to polling unit staff.
The report also criticized the 2023 election for falling short of the promised transparency and inclusivity. The witness maintained that the technological innovations introduced by INEC aimed to ensure the transparency and integrity of the results.
Uche, on the other hand, argued that there were no technical glitches on the day of the presidential election, attributing any glitches to human error or an INEC glitch.
Following the conclusion of the witness’s testimony, INEC’s counsel informed the court that this marked the conclusion of their case, with no further witnesses or documents to present.
Justice Haruna Tsammani, the Chairman of the five-member panel, adjourned the hearing of the petition until Tuesday.
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