TheCable

Testimonies from the witnesses of Atiku Abubakar and the playing of video evidence by the Labour Party (LP) dominated proceedings at the presidential election petition tribunal on Saturday.

Here are five takeaways from the session.

DISMISSAL OF LP’s REQUEST TO INTERROGATE INEC

The tribunal dismissed an application filed by the LP seeking to interrogate the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the technology deployed for the conduct of the election.

In two applications, the petitioners had through Patrick Ikweto, their counsel, prayed the court to order INEC to supply the names and other details of its ICT professionals.

In an unanimous decision, the tribunal ruled that the applicants failed to disclose any extreme circumstance that stopped them from filing within the statutory time.

The five-member panel led by Haruna Tsammani said the tribunal lacked the jurisdiction to grant the request because it was made outside the pre-hearing session.

PLAYING OF VIDEO EVIDENCE

After the back and forth of Friday, Peter Obi and the LP eventually played two video clips during Saturday’s proceedings.

In the process of playing the first clip, a glitch was encountered but it was quickly resolved.

The videos contained interviews with Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, and Festus Okoye, a national commissioner, giving assurances on the functionality of the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS) in the 2023 elections.

LP TENDERS EXHIBITS

After playing the video evidence before the court, the LP sought to tender Form EC40G for eight LGAs in Benue state.

The five-member panel of the tribunal admitted the documents as exhibits.

Lawyers of the respondents — INEC, President Bola Tinubu, Vice-President Kashim Shettima and the All Progressives Congress (APC) — objected to the admissibility of the documents and said they would reserve their objections until the final address.

ATIKU PRESENTS EX-CORPS MEMBERS AS WITNESSES

Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), presented two more witnesses.

The witnesses — Alheri Ayuba and Sadiya Haruna — told the court they were employed by INEC as ad-hoc staff and served as presiding officers in the federal capital territory (FCT).

The witnesses were led in evidence by Chris Uche who sought to adopt their written statements.

Lawyers of the respondents objected to the admissibility of the documents and said they would reserve their objections until the final address.

Chris Uche, counsel to INEC, tendered copies of the appointment letters of the witnesses which were admitted as evidence by the court.

WITNESSES TELL COURT BVAS FAILED ON ELECTION DAY

The two witnesses who served as presiding officers told the court that they performed their duties during the election strictly in compliance with INEC guidelines.

They said after the counting of votes at their respective polling units, the BVAS machine failed to upload results in real time.

During cross-examination, both witnesses were asked if they were influenced or induced by anyone to do something wrong during the election.

The witnesses answered “no”.

Subsequently, the presidential election petition tribunal was adjourned to June 13.