Presidential Tribunal: INEC Closes Defence In Obi’s Petition

The Independent National Electoral Commission, on Tuesday, opened and closed its defence in Peter Obi’s petition challenging the result of the February 25 presidential election.

Recall that Bola Tinubu was declared the winner of the election and was sworn in as the president on May 29.

Obi of the Labour Party is urging the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja to set aside Tinubu’s victory on the grounds that the Independent National Electoral Commission failed to comply with the electoral laws.

At the resumed proceedings on Tuesday, counsel for INEC, A.B Mahmoud, SAN, proceeded to close its defence in the petition after calling the first witness, Lawrence Bayode, an assistant director in charge of its ICT department.

He said the images of forms EC8A captured with the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System and transmitted to IReV are not relevant for the collation of results.

When examined by counsel for the All Progressives Congress, L.O Fagbemi, SAN, the witness told the court that the glitch recorded during the last presidential election did not affect the collation of the election results.

He added that if what was downloaded from the IreV are not clear the physical results could also be obtained.

The petitioners also tendered the E- transmission saver Web and compliance form through the witness. It was admitted and marked as evidence.

The witness told the court that the pre-production test was carried out before the election.