On Thursday, the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja admitted over 18,000 polling unit results sheets as exhibits in Peter Obi’s petition challenging President Bola Tinubu’s victory.

A data analyst subpoenaed to testify as Obi’s fourth witness said the about 18,000 result sheets obtained from INEC’s IReV were blurred.

Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 25 February presidential election, is contesting INEC’s declaration of Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the race, on various grounds.

The candidate, who came third in the polls, accused Nigeria’s electoral commission, INEC, of rigging the election in favour of Tinubu.

At the resumed hearing of the case on Thursday, Obi’s lawyer, Onyechi Ikpeazu, called the petitioner’s first expert witness, Eric Uwadiagwu, who conducted a data analysis concerning the results of the disputed election.

Uwadiagwu, a professor of mathematics at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, appeared in court on subpoena to testify as a petitioner’s witness.

Led by Ikpeazu, Uwadiagwu adopted his witness statement on oath as his evidence-in-chief.

He confirmed carrying out data analysis on the results of the presidential election obtained from the IReV portal.

The portal is an online platform where photographic copies of polling unit results are meant to be promptly uploaded immediately after the public announcement of results at the polling units.

It was an innovation deployed for Nigeria’s general election for the first time in February to boost the transparency of the election process.

Failure of INEC to keep to its promise to promptly upload the results in most of the polling units across the country during the election in February had triggered an outcry from the camp of the opposition candidates.

Obi and the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, who is similarly challenging the outcome of the election, said in their separate petitions that INEC’s failure to upload the results as prescribed in the guidelines for the election was enough grounds to cancel the entire election and organise a fresh one.

The reports of Uwadiagwu’s data analysis of the results from Rivers and Benue states were admitted and marked as exhibits.

One of the reports said results from over 18,000 polling stations contained in four boxes were blurred.

Uwadiagwu, Obi’s fourth witness, could not be cross-examined by the respondent’s lawyers due to the late service of his witness statement by Ikpeazu.

INEC’s lawyer, Abubakar Mahmoud, contested the late service of Uwadiagwu’s witness statement on him.

“We were supposed to be served with the witness’ statement 48 hours ahead of today’s hearing,” Mahmoud said.

Also, Tinubu’s lawyer, Wole Olanipekun and APC’s counsel, Lateef Fagbemi, complained of the lateness in serving them with Uwadiagwu’s sworn statement.

They equally registered their opposition to the tendering of Uwadiagwu’s reports of the data analysis.

INEC Chairman’s address at Chatham House admitted in evidence

The court admitted a video clip of INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu addressing the Chatham House in London.

The video was tendered by Lummie Edeveie, a journalist at Arise Television.

Edevie was the fifth witness in Obi’s suit.

In the video played in court, Yakubu addressed the audience at the Chatham House in January 2023 about the electoral umpire’s preparedness for ensuring the electoral integrity of the general election.

Specifically, Yakubu spoke about the deployment of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and INEC IReV portal, which he assured would ensure the credibility of the polls.

For want of time, Mahmoud, Olanipekun and Fagbemi could not cross-examine the two witnesses – Uwadiagwu and Edeveie.

The five-member court panel chaired by Haruna Tsammani adjourned further proceedings until Friday for the cross-examination of the two witnesses.

 

PT