INEC chair, Mahmood Yakubu, to testify in Atiku’s suit challenging Tinubu’s victory
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, is set to testify before the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja.
This comes as part of Atiku Abubakar’s petition challenging Bola Tinubu’s victory in the February presidential election. Atiku, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has accused INEC and Tinubu of manipulating the polls. Yakubu has been subpoenaed to testify and is expected to provide sensitive electoral documents to support the petitioner’s case.
At the resumption of sitting on Tuesday, PDP counsel, Chris Uche SAN,
presented before the court , his star witness, Dr Alex Adum Ter Esq who served as National Coordinator of the PDP Situation room during the 2023 election.
He adopted his witness statement on oath wherein he mentioned the video of the INEC Chairman, Yakubu Mahmood, INEC National Commissioner, Festus Okoye as well as the European Union Election Observer Mission, as evidence including the certificate of authenticity of the videos in line with the Evidence Act 2011.
But the lawyers representing INEC, President Bola Tinubu and All Progressives Congress vehemently opposed the videos being tendered as evidence and played before the court.
But the five-man panel of the court led by Justice Haruna Tsammani noted their objections, reserved ruling till judgement but gave the PDP go ahead to play the video evidence.
The first video was where Mahmood said no going back on using BVAS for voter accreditation and transmission of election results in realtime.
The second video was where Okoye said there will be no incidence forms on election day and that if BVAS fails to work, the election at such polling unit will be rescheduled for the next day.
The third video showed the press briefing of the EU Observer Mission to Nigeria where its official, Barry Andrews, said there was a lack of critical planning and lack of transparency on the part of INEC regarding the transmission of scanned polling unit results to IREV.
After the videos ended, Uche applied to tender screenshots of the IREV portal of INEC as at March 18 and March 19, as mentioned by the witness.
He also tendered the INEC CTC IREV report showing 9403 polling units uploaded as of March 1, out of 176,000 polling units.
INEC lawyer A.B Mahmoud opposed the “so called” screenshots of IREV by the PDP while counsels to Tinubu and APC aligned with his objection, except for the one certified by the electoral umpire.
The court still admitted them while reserving ruling till judgement.
Under cross-examination by INEC lawyer, Mahmoud, Ter admitted he was not at the INEC National Collation Centre in Abuja.
The witness said he remained in Abuja on election day and the days following the election up until the declaration of result, adding that he voted.
“You are not an ICT expert?,” Mahmoud asked him.
“I am not an ICT expert,” he replied.
Mahmoud asked him why he made reference to certain calculation errors in the final results but did not specify details of such errors in his statement of oath.
The witness said he did not but added that statisticians the PDP engaged reviewed the IRev and had the actual figures.
He insisted there were no technical glitches on election day.
During cross examination by Tinubu’s lawyer, Akin Olujimi SAN, Ter said his statement on alleged corrupt practices were received from PDP state and local government collation agents.
When pressed further, he agreed that the polling unit result is the primary source of validating election results.
Asked how he knew that there was deliberate bypass of the BVAS machine during the presidential election, the witness said he got it from videos shared to the PDP situation room by party agents.
Asked if he had in his statement, any other final result different from the one announced by INEC.
The witness said he had none.
APC counsel, Benjamin Umoh SAN pressed further on the use of BVAS, saying it is used for accreditation and transmission of scanned result after poll result has been announced at polling unit.
He answered in the affirmative.
The star witness was then discharged from the testimony dock.
Uche subsequently called the 20th witness by the name Olatunji Shelle, a retired naval officer and politician who served as Lagos State PDP Collation agent.
He admitted he was not at his polling unit when counting was concluded and announced.
When asked by the INEC lawyer to substantiate his allegation about secret polling units in Lagos, the witness said he had an idea about them but did not visit any of them.
“As at today, Labour party won Presidential election in Lagos as declared by INEC?,” Tinubu’s lawyer Yusuf Ali SAN asked him.
“Yes,” he replied.
He was asked to confirm if the Labour party won the presidential election in Lagos state, to which he replied, saying “That is as announced by INEC.”
Uche subsequently called for adjournment of his matter till Tuesday.
He also informed the court that he has subpoenaed the INEC chairman and national Commissioner to appear in court and produce electoral documents, since their lawyers are busy objecting CTCs of documents from their Commission.
