INEC Boss, Mahmood May Testify in Atiku’s Petition against Tinubu June 15

•Court admits blurred electoral body’s certified IReV report as exhibits in Obi’s petition against president

Alex Enumah in Abuja

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Yakubu Mahmood, may tommorow, appear before the Presidential Election Petition Court (PREPEC) to give evidence on the conduct of the February 25 presidential election.

Mahmood’s appearance would be at the instance of a court summon filed by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

The former Vice President had dragged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, INEC, the All Progressives Congress (APC) to court, protesting the process and e eventual outcome of the presidential election which produced Tinubu as President.

Shortly before the close of proceedings, yesterday, Chief Chris Uche, lead counsel to Atiku and PDP, had announced that Mahmood would be appearing in court on June 15 or 16, to testify on the conduct of the disputed presidential election and also tender documents in aid of the presidential candidate of the PDP.

Uche however, did not disclose the nature of documents the INEC chief would be required to tender.

According to Uche, the formal announcement about Mahmood’s appearance was to prepare the respondents’ minds and prevent possible objections on grounds that they were not informed.

Meanwhile, the first star witness of the petitioners, Dr. Alex Adum Ter, told the panel that only about 9403 results were uploaded into the INEC’s Results Viewing ( IReV) portal as at March 1, when Mahmood declared Tinubu as winner of the presidential election.

Ter, who was the National Coordinator, Situation Room for PDP in the just concluded general elections in his evidence in Chief, claimed that the failure of INEC to transmit the results of the election real time from the polling units to the IReV portal for all to see substantially robbed the presidential election of any credibility and validity.

Besides documentary evidence he brought before the court to prove that INEC did not transmit the presidential election results in line with its regulations and guidelines, the witness also tendered video evidence featuring Mahmood, INEC’s Commissioner in charge of Information and Voter Education, Mr. Festus Okoye, assuring Nigerians that election results would be electronically transmitted to make the election credible and transparent.

In the third video involving European Union Observer Mission, at a press conference, the observer group was seen and heard saying INEC did not start uploading election results until 10pm of election day and barely reached 20 per cent by noon the following day.

Although, Tinubu and APC objected to the admissibility of the documents, Justice Tsammani admitted them after which the video clips were played in the open court.

The witness also tendered screen shots of the IReV portal.

During cross examination by the respondents, the witness admitted that he was not at the National Collation Center but was at the PDP situation room in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

He also admitted not being an ICT expert, but that he based his report from information obtained from agents of the PDP at the collation centers.

The witness faulted INEC for not transmitting presidential election results electronically, adding that calculation errors led the electoral body into grave errors .

Hearing in the suit continues today.

Meanwhile, amongst documents tendered and admitted as exhibits at the ongoing PREPEC yesterday, included copies of a blurred report of INEC’s IReV portal.

The IReV report duly certified by INEC were tendered by the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, in their bid to prove their petitions against the election of Tinubu.

At yesterday’s proceedings, after tendering Forms EC40GPU and EC40G1 used in the conduct of the February 25 presidential election, Obi and LP through their lawyer, Mr. Peter Afoba, went ahead to tender copies of the INEC’s IReV report released to them following their request through the court.

First of the IReV report to be tendered were in respect of 21 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Adamawa State. However, when it got to the turn of Ogun State, Afoba told the court that the IReV report he sought to tender in respect of 20 LGAs are “generally blurred copies”, adding that they were certified by INEC.

Like, all other documents which were opposed by the respondents which include INEC, Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC), the court however admitted the blurred documents as exhibits.

Other states whose IReV reports were admitted as exhibits were Ekiti, with respect to 16 LGAs, Rivers, with respect to 19 LGAs and Akwa Ibom, with respect to 25.

Besides IReV report, the petitioners also tendered five reports on the conduct of the election in Niger State and 8 in Edo to back up allegations of malpractices during the conduct of the election.

Regarding the Form EC40GPU, the petitioners tendered exhibits from 10 LGAs in Niger State,  23 in seven LGAs in Osun, 17 in three LGAs in Edo State and five LGAs in Sokoto were tendered.

Obi also tendered 15 forms EC40G in 8 Local Government Areas of Osun State, 12 forms EC40G1 in 12 Local Government Areas of Edo, 15 forms EC40G in four Local Government Areas of Sokoto and 9 forms EC40G1 in two Local Government Areas of Sokoto.

Hearing in the petition continues today.