The presidential election petition tribunal has admitted
into evidence the final report of the EU observer mission which faulted the
February 25 poll.
Here are the highlights of Monday’s proceedings.
TRIBUNAL ADMITS EU
REPORT FAULTING THE POLL
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential
candidate, Atiku Abubakar, presented a copy of the final report of the EU
observer report on the election.
Chris Uche, counsel to the petitioners, tendered the
document while cross-examining Lawrence Bayode, a witness called by the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Uche had asked the witness whether or not he knew about the
report.
In response, the witness said although he was aware of the
report, he was yet to see a copy.
Earlier, the witness had said the election was “free, fair
and in substantial compliance with the electoral act”.
However, in the report tendered by Uche, the EU mission said
the conduct of the election was flawed.
Barry Andrews, the chief observer, had said the poll exposed
enduring systemic weaknesses that need to be corrected.
Andrews faulted INEC for the operational challenges and
glitches experienced with the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS) and the
result viewing portal (IReV), saying the discrepancies severely damaged public
confidence in the electoral body.
The PDP lawyer asked the witness to read a portion of the
report where the EU mission said the election was not “transparent and
inclusive” as promised by the INEC.
He also read a portion of the report which stated that “only
31% of results uploaded in IReV was formally or mathematically correct”.
Although all the respondents in the suit opposed the
admissibility of the report, the five-member panel of the tribunal admitted it
in evidence.
INEC CLOSES CASE IN
ATIKU’S PETITION
Bayode, a deputy director at INEC, was the only witness
called by the commission as it closed its case in Atiku’s petition.
The witness said the glitch on the IReV portal did not
affect the integrity of the election, noting that the scores of the individual
candidates remained the same.
He said the result counted by a presiding officer and
entered into the result sheet (form EC8A) is what is considered authentic.
After the witness was discharged, the INEC lawyer said the
commission would not call more witnesses in its defence.
President Bola Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima are
expected to open their case on Tuesday.
ABSENCE OF INEC
WITNESS IN OBI’S PETITION
Hearing in the petition filed by Peter Obi, candidate of the
Labour Party (LP), was stalled due to the absence of INEC’s witness.
The electoral body was scheduled to open its case in the
petition but that could not proceed as planned.
“I was going to take one witness today (Monday), but he
couldn’t make it to court this morning,” Abubakar Mahmoud, INEC counsel, told
the court.
The lawyer said the witness was missing in action because he
had a family emergency to attend to.
Mahmoud assured that the witness would be in court on
Tuesday and that the commission would conclude its case by Wednesday, after
calling a total of three witnesses.
He sought an adjournment and it was granted.
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