The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has wrapped up its defence in the petition filed by former Vce President, Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 presidential elections.
At the resumed hearing yesterday, the INEC team led by Mr. Abubakar Mahmoud, called the sole witness, Mr. Lawrence Bayode, an assistant director in the commission’s information technology department.
Responding to questions from Mr. Wole Olanipekun, counsel to President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima, the witness said images captured on bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS) machines required data services for them to be uploaded to the INEC result viewing portal (IREV).
He also said whether or not photographic copies of polling unit results captured by BVAS are transmitted manually or electronically, the integrity of the election was not compromised.
The witness also submitted that the presidential election was “free, fair and in substantial compliance with the electoral act”.
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Under cross-examination by Mr. Lateef Fagbemi, APC lawyer, the witness, Mr. Bayode, said the glitch on the IREV portal on the day of the election did not affect the actual scores of the candidates as the results of each of them remained the same.
The APC lawyer then presented a newspaper article wherein INEC has given a pre-election notice stating that electronic collation of results was not feasible. The newspaper was tendered and admitted in evidence despite objection from the petitioners’ counsel.
During further cross-examination, Mr. Chris Uche, former VP Abubakar’s counsel, presented the recently released report by the European Union (EU) election observation mission in Nigeria.
Former Vice President Atiku and the PDP are contesting President Tinubu’s return as winner in the presidential poll.
The petitioners closed their case on June 23 after calling 27 witnesses.
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