Presidential poll dispute: Court admits Peter Obi’s additional video evidence

The Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, sitting in Abuja, has admitted in evidence, additional video evidence that was tendered by candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Mr. Peter Obi.

The video recording, which was played in the open court on Friday, after it was admitted as an exhibit, was brought on the strength of a subpoena that the Justice Haruna Tsammani-led five-member panel issued on Africa Independent Television, AIT.

It was tendered in a flash drive, through the anchor of the Democracy Today program on AIT, Ijeoma Osamor.

In the video, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, during a press conference, assured that results of the 2023 general elections would be electronically transmitted, using Bimodal Voter Accreditation, BVAS, devices.

Meanwhile, after the video recording was admitted in evidence, the court, gave the lawyers that represented INEC, President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress, APC, who are Respondents in the matter, the nod to cross examine the witness.

Under cross examination, Osamor, told the court that contrary to positions of both President Tinubu and the APC, the INEC Chairman did not at any time before the elections, declared that the results would no longer be uploaded.

However, counsel for the APC, Mr. Abiodun Owonikoko, SAN, insisted that there was a newspaper publication to back the claim of the party that the INEC Chairman had before the elections, adduced reasons why the Commission could not transmit the results.

However, the witness, told the court that as a reporter covering the INEC beat, she attended all press briefings by the Commission and never heard such announcement by Prof. Yakubu.

She told the court that the said publication that President Tinubu and the APC relied on, which was dated February 23, was probably a personal interview between the INEC Chairman and Tribune Newspaper.

Meanwhile, all the Respondents challenged the admissibility of the video recording from AIT in evidence, saying they would adduce reasons behind their objections in their final written address.

Earlier in the proceedings, a Professor of Mathematics at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Eric Ofoedu, told the court that he analysed some of the results of the presidential election that INEC uploaded on its IReV portal.

Under cross examination, Prof. Ofoedu told the court that he embarked on the analysis, as an academic exercise that would benefit his students.

He told the court that he was not paid for the job, adding that he had to be subpoenaed to tender the outcome of his analysis in evidence, since his original aim was not to use the report for any election litigation.

Nevertheless, the witness, maintained his ground that over 18,088 result sheets that INEC uploaded in relation to the presidential contest, were blurred.

The court adjourned further hearing on the matter till Monday.

Obi, who is claiming that he won the presidential election, is among other things, praying the court to nullify Tinubu’s victory and withdraw the Certificate of Return that was issued to him by INEC.