Election Petition: INEC, APC kick as Atiku tenders Tinubu’s biodata

The Independent National Electoral Commission, on Thursday, tendered before the Presidential Election Petition Court, personal information supplied by President Bola Tinubu, which he presented for his qualification for the office of the President.

 

The electoral umpire produced the form EC9, which contains Tinubu’s biodata pursuant to the subpoena issued on INEC Chairman, Yakubu Mahmoud, by the court.

 

The Peoples Democratic Party and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, are challenging the declaration of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress as the winner of the February 25 presidential poll.

 

The PDP had on Tuesday disclosed that it subpoenaed the INEC chairman to appear before the court on Thursday in order to produce some requested documents necessary to prove their claim that Tinubu’s election was invalid.

 

At the resumed hearing, PDP lawyer, Chris Uche (SAN), informed the court that the INEC chair, through a Deputy Director of the commission, M.O Tairu, had brought some of the required documents pursuant to the subpoena.

 

Following the notification of the court, Tairu tendered form EC8D, which is a series of results for the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

 

The Certified True Copies of the accredited documents from the 36 states and the FCT were produced and presented in both soft and hard copies.

 

Tairu also tendered form EC8DA, which is the final declaration of the results.

 

She tendered before the court, accredited data from the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System with respect to Rivers State.

 

All the respondents, including INEC objected to the admissibility of the documents.

 

Counsel for INEC, A.B. Mahmoud, also asserted that the petitioners had yet to pay for the certification of the documents tendered.

 

However, Uche countered the statement, saying the sum of N6.7m “has been paid to the first respondent.”

 

He also argued that the documents were produced upon the orders of the court.

 

The five-man panel of the court headed by Justice Tsammani admitted the documents in evidence and marked them as exhibits.

 

The court subsequently adjourned further hearing in the petition to June 16.

 

Meanwhile, the PEPC on Thursday admitted in evidence data analysis of the February 25 presidential election results and their accompanying appendices in Peter Obi’s petition against Tinubu.

 

The court also admitted in evidence blurred results from 18,088 polling units from INEC results viewing portal.

 

The LP’s lawyer, Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), called a professor of mathematics, Eric Ofoedu, as a witness to tender a report of data analysis on the election.

 

The five-man panel, in a brief ruling, adjourned till today (Friday) for the respondents’ counsel to cross-examine the professor.

 

A staff member of Arise News, Lumnie Edevbie, also appeared as a witness for the Labour Party.

 

Led in evidence by Patrick Ikweato (SAN), Edevbie tendered in evidence a copy of a flash drive containing a video clip showing the INEC Chairman, Yakubu Mahmoud, giving a speech at the Chatham House in London on January 17.

 

In the speech, Mahmoud made a case for the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System and the IRev as the commission’s biggest archive and repository of the results of the election.