Presidential Election Tribunal: Court admits Peter Obi’s additional video evidence

The Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, sitting in Abuja, has admitted in evidence additional video evidence presented by Mr. Peter Obi, candidate of the Labour Party, LP.

 

The video recording, which was played in open court on Friday after being admitted as an exhibit, was brought on the strength of a subpoena issued by the Justice Haruna Tsammani-led five-member panel on Africa Independent Television, AIT.

 

It was delivered in the form of a flash drive by Ijeoma Osamor, the anchor of AIT’s Democracy Today programme.

 

During a press conference, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, assured that the results of the 2023 general elections would be electronically transmitted using Bimodal Voter Accreditation, BVAS, devices, according to the video.

 

 

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Meanwhile, after the video recording was admitted into evidence, the court granted permission to the lawyers representing INEC, President Bola Tinubu, and the All Progressives Congress, APC, who are the Respondents in the case, to cross-examine the witness.

 

Under cross-examination, Osamor told the court that, contrary to the positions of both President Tinubu and the APC, the INEC Chairman never declared that the results would no longer be uploaded prior to the elections.

 

However, counsel for the APC, Mr. Abiodun Owonikoko, SAN, insisted that there was a newspaper publication to back the party’s claim that the INEC Chairman had adduced reasons why the Commission could not transmit the results prior to the elections.

 

However, the witness testified in court that as a reporter covering the INEC beat, she attended all press briefings held by the Commission and never heard Prof. Yakubu make such an announcement.

 

She told the court that the publication on which President Tinubu and the APC relied, dated February 23, was most likely a personal interview between the INEC Chairman and Tribune Newspaper.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, all of the Respondents challenged the admissibility of the AIT video recording as evidence, stating that they would provide reasons for their objections in their final written address.

 

Earlier in the proceedings, Eric Ofoedu, a Professor of Mathematics at Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Awka, Anambra State, told the court that he examined some of the presidential election results that INEC posted on its IReV portal.

 

Under cross examination, Prof. Ofoedu told the court that he began the analysis as an academic exercise to benefit his students.

 

He told the court that he was not paid for the job, and that he had to be subpoenaed to give the results of his analysis in evidence because his original intention was not to use the report in any election litigation.

 

Nonetheless, the witness maintained that over 18,088 result sheets uploaded by INEC in connection with the presidential election were blurred.

 

 

 

The court postponed further hearings on the case until Monday.

 

Obi, who claims to have won the presidential election, is asking the court to overturn Tinubu’s victory and withdraw the Certificate of Return that INEC issued to him.