Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, on Wednesday, tendered tons of electoral documents, including Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) records before the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja.

In furtherance of his suit challenging President Bola Tinubu’s victory in the 25 February presidential election, Obi, through his lawyer, Livy Uzoukwu, presented certified true copies (CTCs) of documents detailing the total number of registered voters and PVCs.

Uzoukwu said the electoral documents were from the 32 states of the federation.

He further listed other documents to include – CTCs of supplementary INEC Results Viewing report regarding three local government areas of Benue State, two LGAs of Cross River State, 13 LGAs of Lagos State and one council area of Gombe State.

The lawyer also tendered a certificate of compliance concerning the conduct of the presidential poll in Edo State.

Kemi Pinheiro, who represented INEC at the proceedings, did not oppose its admissibility.

But the legal teams of Tinubu and the APC kicked against its admissibility.

Wole Olanipekun and Lateef Fagbemi, who represented Tinubu and the APC, respectively, promised to give reasons for their objections in their final arguments in the suit.

More witnesses

At the resumed hearing on Wednesday, one of Obi’s lawyers, Patrick Ikwueto, led more witnesses to prove his client’s case against the president.

The eighth witness, Chubuike Ugwuoke, mounted the box, where he adopted his witness statement on oath.

Ugwuoke, a cyber security expert, was subpoenaed to testify before the five-member panel of the court chaired by Haruna Tsammani.

He tendered a press statement that was issued by INEC before the general elections.

The press statement issued in November 2022 by Festus Okoye on behalf of INEC debunked an “alleged plot to abandon transmission of polling unit results to IReV portal.”

“The claim is patently false,” Okoye said in the statement, assuring Nigerians that “the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) and INEC Results Viewing (IReV) (portal) have come to stay for Voter accreditation and uploading of polling units results in real-time in Nigeria.”

Okoye, an INEC commissioner in charge of voter education, explained that the IReV is one of the innovations introduced by the electoral umpire to guarantee electoral integrity and credibility in Nigeria.

But during the 25 February presidential election, INEC failed to transmit polling station results in real-time as promised electronically.

Its inability to comply with the said electoral guidelines forms one of the grounds for Obi and other petitioners’ suits to overturn Tinubu’s victory.

Also, Ugwuoke presented a report called “Meta data.”

But INEC, APC and Tinubu objected to the admissibility of the document, promising to provide reasons in support of their objection.

The respondents’ lawyers urged the court to defer Ugwuoke’s cross-examination until Thursday, which the court granted.

Thereafter, Obi’s ninth witness, Onoja Sunday, mounted the witness box.

Sunday, a staff member at Women & Child Rescue Initiative, a not-for-profit organisation, adopted his witness statement and presented his staff identity card to the court.

Under cross-examination by Abubakar Mahmoud, INEC’s lawyer, Sunday said he was not a political party member.

But while being cross-examined by Emmanuel Ukala, a lawyer in Tinubu’s legal team, the witness said he was subpoenaed in his capacity using his permanent residential address.

Recalling his observation during the polls, Sunday said electoral officials failed to upload the presidential election results to the IReV portal.

Kefas Iya, the 10th petitioner’s witness, said he worked as a member of the ad-hoc staff during the presidential election.

Iya, a civil servant, told the court that he supervised 24 polling stations in his Ward at Madagali LGA in Adamawa State.

He said INEC officials could not upload the presidential election results from the polling units.

Iya said the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, won the presidential election in Adamawa, his home state.

The court adjourned the hearing in the case until Thursday.

 

PT