Presidential Tribunal: INEC Closes Case Against Peter Obi

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Tuesday opened and closed its defence in the petition by Peter Obi and the Labour Party (LP) before the 2023 Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT).

During the sitting, INEC’s lawyer, Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN) called a sole witness, Dr. Lawrence Bayode, who is a Deputy Director in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Department of INEC.

The witness, under cross-examination, said even if blurred documents were downloaded from IREV, that will not affect the physical results as recorded in Forms EC8As which are not blurred.

Bayode also said the images of Forms EC8A captured with BVAS and transmitted to IREv are not relevant for the collation of results.

The witness told the court that the glitch recorded during the last presidential election did not affect the collation of the results of the election.

Upon the conclusion of the testimony from the witness, the INEC lawyer announced the closure of the first respondent’s case.

Mahmoud also tendered some documents in evidence.

Lawyer to President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettma, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) said his clients will open their defence in the petition on Wednesday.