The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, told the Presidential Election Petition Court sitting on Saturday that he will present 50 witnesses within seven weeks to prove that President-elect Bola Tinubu, was fraudulently declared winner on March 1.
Obi made this known to the court through his
legal team led by Awa Kalu SAN.
Meanwhile, at the sitting today, Kalu accused
the first respondent, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, of
not complying with the court’s order regarding access to electoral materials.
“My lords, we still have a few hiccups at
INEC because of the order that was made by this court on March 8, directing
them to allow us to carry out a forensic examination of the BVAS. They have not
allowed us.
“We are also waiting for some documents we
requested from them,” Prof. Kalu said.
He added that following the court’s orders to
streamline issues, parties have agreed to use 55 minutes to take witness
testimonies, examine and cross-examine them.
But INEC’s lawyer A.B Mahmoud SAN denied that
the Commission did not comply with the court order on election materials.
“I have no knowledge of such hiccups. I had
earlier assured the lead counsel for the petitioners, Dr. Livy Uzoukwu, SAN,
that I would be available to assist him in any way that I can, should he
encounter any difficulty.
“So far, I have not received such a complaint
from him,” he replied, adding he would present two witnesses against Obi.
From INEC’s processes seen by our
correspondent, the electoral umpire intends to bring one of its Deputy
Director, ICT Department, as witness against Obi claims that election was
flawed due to non compliance with the electoral act especially the real-time
transmission of results to the INEC Results Viewing Portal.
On his part, Tinubu’s lawyers asked for 3
weeks to call 21 witnesses in defence of their client.
The case was further adjourned to Monday.
Recall that Obi wants Tinubu’s victory
nullified for allegedly not scoring majority of lawful votes cast in the
presidential election.
The petitioner is claiming that the election
results were altered in about 18,000 polling units while overvoting occurred in
parts of the South West and North.
According to him, if the actual results in
those over 18,000 polling units are captured, he would clearly be leading in
the polls.
“That it be determined that the 2nd
Respondent(Tinubu) having failed to score one-quarter of the votes cast at the
presidential election in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja was not entitled
to be declared and returned as the winner of the presidential election held on
25th February 2023,” part of Obi’s petition partly reads.
Post a Comment