TheCable

The presidential election petition tribunal has ruled that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is at liberty to determine its mode of transmitting election results.

Haruna Tsammani, chairman of the tribunal, on Wednesday, cited the judgment of a federal high court in suit FHC/ABJ/CS/1454/2022 delivered on January 23, 2023.

Tsammani said the judgment subsists since the Labour Party (LP) has failed to appeal against it.

He also ruled that  Peter Obi, candidate of the Labour Party (LP), could not establish that INEC deliberately failed to upload results to the IReV in order to manipulate the election result in favour of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February polls.

Tsammani added that the petitioners did not prove how they were affected by the failure of INEC to electronically transmit the results.

“The petitioners have failed to prove substantial non-compliance with the provision of the Electoral Act,” he said.

The LP and its candidate had approached the tribunal to challenge the victory of Tinubu over the delay in the electronic transmission of results by INEC, among other issues.