Presidential Tribunal: INEC Closes Defense in Atiku-PDP Petition
POLITICS DIGEST- The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has closed its defence in the petition filed by Atiku Abubakar and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) after only presenting one witness and submitting relevant documents.
Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN), the lawyer representing INEC, announced the closure of the case following the testimony of Dr. Lawrence Bayode, an IT Practitioner from INEC and the sole witness.
Bayode affirmed the occurrence of technical glitches during the transmission of the presidential election results, impacting the real-time transmission. He emphasised that the integrity of the results captured in the polling unit result sheets (Form EC8A) remained unaffected, regardless of whether the transmission was electronic or manual.
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During the proceedings, Bayode, who has served at INEC for 24 years, adopted his previously submitted written deposition from April 11 as his official testimony. In support of his claims, Mahmoud presented a cloud trail log and a related certificate, providing evidence of the technical glitches experienced within INEC’s system during the election.
Prior to the witness’s appearance, Mahmoud submitted a certified true copy (CTC) of a letter dated July 6, 2022, from the All Progressives Congress (APC), which INEC acknowledged.
After Mahmoud concluded his case, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), the lawyer representing Tinubu, informed the court that the second respondent (Tinubu) would present his defence on Tuesday.
In the petition filed on March 21, Atiku sought the presidential election court to either declare him the winner of the February 25 election or invalidate the election and order a rerun.
Atiku’s petition included seven key prayers. He asked the court to determine that Tinubu was not duly elected by a majority of lawful votes cast, rendering his victory unlawful, wrongful, unconstitutional, null, and void. Atiku also argued that Tinubu was not qualified to contest the election.
Additionally, he urged the court to declare him the winner of the presidential election based on the majority of lawful votes cast. Alternatively, Atiku requested the court to order INEC to conduct a second election (run-off) between him and Tinubu.
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