Testimonies from the witnesses of Atiku Abubakar and the
playing of video evidence by the Labour Party (LP) dominated proceedings at the
presidential election petition tribunal on Saturday.
Here are five takeaways from the session.
DISMISSAL OF LP’s
REQUEST TO INTERROGATE INEC
The tribunal dismissed an application filed by the LP
seeking to interrogate the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on
the technology deployed for the conduct of the election.
In two applications, the petitioners had through Patrick
Ikweto, their counsel, prayed the court to order INEC to supply the names and
other details of its ICT professionals.
In an unanimous decision, the tribunal ruled that the
applicants failed to disclose any extreme circumstance that stopped them from
filing within the statutory time.
The five-member panel led by Haruna Tsammani said the
tribunal lacked the jurisdiction to grant the request because it was made
outside the pre-hearing session.
PLAYING OF VIDEO
EVIDENCE
After the back and forth of Friday, Peter Obi and the LP
eventually played two video clips during Saturday’s proceedings.
In the process of playing the first clip, a glitch was
encountered but it was quickly resolved.
The videos contained interviews with Mahmood Yakubu, INEC
chairman, and Festus Okoye, a national commissioner, giving assurances on the
functionality of the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS) in the 2023
elections.
LP TENDERS EXHIBITS
After playing the video evidence before the court, the LP
sought to tender Form EC40G for eight LGAs in Benue state.
The five-member panel of the tribunal admitted the documents
as exhibits.
Lawyers of the respondents — INEC, President Bola Tinubu,
Vice-President Kashim Shettima and the All Progressives Congress (APC) —
objected to the admissibility of the documents and said they would reserve
their objections until the final address.
ATIKU PRESENTS
EX-CORPS MEMBERS AS WITNESSES
Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP), presented two more witnesses.
The witnesses — Alheri Ayuba and Sadiya Haruna — told the
court they were employed by INEC as ad-hoc staff and served as presiding
officers in the federal capital territory (FCT).
The witnesses were led in evidence by Chris Uche who sought
to adopt their written statements.
Lawyers of the respondents objected to the admissibility of
the documents and said they would reserve their objections until the final
address.
Chris Uche, counsel to INEC, tendered copies of the
appointment letters of the witnesses which were admitted as evidence by the
court.
WITNESSES TELL COURT
BVAS FAILED ON ELECTION DAY
The two witnesses who served as presiding officers told the
court that they performed their duties during the election strictly in
compliance with INEC guidelines.
They said after the counting of votes at their respective
polling units, the BVAS machine failed to upload results in real time.
During cross-examination, both witnesses were asked if they
were influenced or induced by anyone to do something wrong during the election.
The witnesses answered “no”.
Subsequently, the presidential election petition tribunal
was adjourned to June 13.
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