Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Tuesday, closed its defence after calling its only witness to testify in opposition to the petition filed by Peter Obi and the Labour Party (LP) at the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC).

INEC’s lawyer, Abubakar Mahmoud, announced the closure of the first respondent’s case after its witness, Lawrence Bayode, a Deputy Director in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Department of the commission, finished testifying.

The electoral commission similarly closed its case concerning the petition filed by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), with Bayode also testifying as its sole witness.

Atiku’s legal team took advantage of the INEC witness to tender the European Union ((EU) Observers’ final report, which was critical of the 25 February presidential election, as an exhibit in court on Monday.

Both Atiku and Obi are by their separate petitions challenging the outcome of the 25 February poll, which had President Bola Tinubu as the winner.

Before calling on Bayode to testify in Obi’s case on Tuesday, the INEC lawyer tendered some documents which were admitted and marked as exhibits.

Led in evidence by Mahmood, the witness told the court that he worked for INEC for 24 years.

Cross-examination

Under cross-examination by Patrick Ikwueto, counsel for the petitioners, the witness told the court that the testing of the software application for the election was carried out on 4 February.

He added that there was a report on the testing, but it was not with him in the court.

The petitioners tendered the e-transmission saver web and compliance form through the witness. The court admitted and marked the documents as exhibits.

The witness told the court that the pre-production test was conducted before the election.

He was asked if the hard copy of the results would differ from the ones in the IreV portal (an online portal designed to receive and display photographic photos of polling unit results in real time. He said no.

He, however, added that anything could happen when sending the results from form EC8A (polling unit result sheet) to the IreV.

He admitted that performance, functionality and vulnerability tests were conducted before the election.

The witness agreed with Ikwueto that the report of the e-transmission application identifies remediation to be undertaken to resolve the high vulnerability identified in the report.

The witness said he does not know INEC ‘s web address where its materials are published.

While also cross-examining the witness, Wole Olanipekun, counsel for President Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima, asked if the foundation and authenticity of any election by INEC are rooted in forms EC8A and EC8E, the witness said yes.

The witness added that blurred documents downloaded from INEC IreV would not affect the physical results in form EC8A because the image is irrelevant.

He said the election ends with the recording, snapping and sending of results to INEC‘s IreV.

Answering questions from APC counsel Lateef Fagbemi, the witness said the physical results are used for computing the election’s final results.

He said the glitches that occurred on election day did not affect the collation of the results.

He added that if what was downloaded from the IreV was not clear, the physical results could be obtained.

He told the court further that ECOWAS monitored the election, but he does not have their report.

The witness stated that the cloud trial log account of INEC can be obtained from Amazon Web Services (AWS).

INEC’s defence closed

After the testimony of the sole witness, INEC’s lawyer, Mahmoud, told the court that INEC’s defence in the Obi and Labour Party petition is closed.

Olanipekun later told the court that Tinubu and Shetimma, listed as second and third respondents in the petition, will open their defence Wednesday.

The five-member panel headed by Haruna Tsammani adjourned until Wednesday for them to open their defence.

Obi and his Labour Party (LP) are petitioners in the petition marked CA/PEPC/03/2023 challenging the election which brought Tinubu to office.

Respondents are the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu, Shettima, and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

NAN