Tinubu reveals when he will start defence against Atiku, PDP's petition as INEC closes defence

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is done in defending itself in the petition filed by Atiku Abubakar and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Wole Olanipekun, lawyer to President Bola Tinubu, informed the court that the second respondent (Tinubu) will open his defence on Tuesday, July 4.

This is after the electoral umpire called one witness; tendered some documents, and closed its defence of the Atiku and PDP's petition at the presidential election petition court (PEPC), The Nation reported.

The defence counsel, Abubakar Mahmoud, declared his client's case closed after presenting his sole witness, Dr Lawrence Bayode, and Information Technology (IT), who worked with INEC.

Mahmoud adopted the written testimony of Bayode and was cross-examined by the PDP and Atiku's lawyers. Bayode is the deputy director of the IT Department of INEC.

He testified that glitches were experienced during the transmission of the February 25 presidential election results and affected the real-time transmission of the poll results.

He maintained that the integrity of the results already captured at the polling unit results sheets (Form EC8A) cannot be tampered with whether they are manually or electronically transmitted. Mahmoud announced the closure of the defence after Bayode was done with his case.

Atiku and the PDP had filed a petition before the presidential election petition tribunal to challenge the outcome of the February 25 presidential election. INEC witness against PDP, Atiku defends glitches in uploading results on the portal

Legit.ng earlier reported that INEC had opened its defence against the petition filed by Atiku Abubakar and the PDP at the presidential election petition court.

The electoral umpire called a witness in his defence, Dr Lawrence Bayode, who was the deputy director of IT with INEC. Bayode said he had worked with INEC for over 24 years and defended the report that there were glitches while uploading the presidential election results on the commission's server.