In a significant development, the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) has admitted the final report of the European Union Election Observer Mission as an exhibit.
Despite strong objections from President Bola Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the report was admitted as evidence by the court.
The European Union Election Observer Mission’s report highlighted the lack of credibility, fairness, and transparency in the manner in which the presidential election was conducted by INEC.
During the proceedings, the report was presented by INEC’s sole witness and Director of Information Technology (IT), Lawrence Bayode. According to the report, only 31 percent of the presidential election results were uploaded into INEC’s result viewing portal.
Bayode admitted that INEC did not have an electronic collation system for election results, and therefore, the presidential election results were manually collated by the presiding officers.
Under cross-examination by Atiku Abubakar’s lead counsel, Chris Uche (SAN), Bayode acknowledged that not all the presidential election results were uploaded into INEC’s results viewing center by March 1, 2023, when Tinubu was declared the winner.
While the witness cited a technical glitch that affected the uploading process, he admitted that INEC did not report this glitch to Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Responding to questions from Wole Olanipekun (SAN), President Tinubu’s lead counsel, Bayode stated that the election results were based on Form EC8A and emphasized that the integrity of the election was not compromised, even if the images of the results captured by the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machine were transmitted electronically or manually.
He also asserted that the announced results were free, fair, transparent, and in compliance with the law.
Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), the lead counsel to the APC, questioned Bayode about glitches experienced on election day. The witness admitted the occurrence of glitches but maintained that they did not affect the final results and the candidates’ scores.
With the presence of one witness and the submission of four documents, INEC concluded its defense in the petition filed by Atiku Abubakar against Tinubu’s victory in the February 25 presidential election.
In a separate ruling, the Presiding Justice of the Presidential Election Petition Court, Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani, ordered President Tinubu to commence his defense of the election victory on Tuesday, June 4, 2023. This ruling sets the stage for further proceedings in the ongoing petition.
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