Court Admits Blurred Results Of 18,000 PUs In Obi’s Petition

The Presidential Election Petition Court entered data analysis of the February 25 presidential election results and their related appendices into evidence on Thursday.

The court also submitted evidence of blurred results from 18,088 polling locations from the Independent National Electoral Commission’s results viewing portal.

The evidence was presented by the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, in the presidential election on February 25.

The LP and Obi are contesting the outcome of the election, in which Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress was proclaimed the winner by INEC.

Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), counsel for the petitioners, presided over the resumed hearing on Thursday on behalf of the LP and Obi.

At the commencement of the hearing, the Senior Advocate informed the court that he intended to invite a Mathematics professor, Eric Ofoedu, to testify before the court.

The witness was reported to have been hired by the 2nd petitioner, LP a few days before the election to do an analysis of the data from the February 25 poll.

The letter addressed to Ofoedu requesting his service and the subpoena served on him to appear in court were also included as evidence.

The respondents in the litigation, notably the Independent National Electoral Commission, Tinubu, his vice-president, Kashim Shettima, and the All Progressives Congress (APC), all objected to the documents’ inclusion.

Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), counsel for the APC, specifically objected to the subpoena filed on the witness but consented to the court admitting the letter of engagement.

They all stated that the grounds for their reservations would be presented later in the petition.

Report of data analysis of the election, INEC Results Viewing scores investigation, separate data analysis of results in Rivers and Benue states, led in testimony by Ikpeazu SAN, the professor of mathematics tendered to the court.

Aside from the reports submitted and marked as exhibits PCG1 – PVG3, the court also entered in evidence blurred polling unit results from IReV in 18,088 polling units across the country.

The respondents did not cross-examine the witness because the court’s five-member panel, led by Justice Tsammani, moved the cross-examination to tomorrow, June 16, following the respondents’ objections that they were only served the witness statement a few minutes before the sitting.

The petitioners also requested that Arise News Television appears in court in support of their petition against Tinubu.

Patrick Ikweato SAN, counsel for the petitioners, called the witness.

The TV station provided proof in the form of a copy of a flash drive with a video clip of INEC’s chairman, Yakubu Mahmoud, giving a lecture at Chatham House in London on January 17.

During his speech, Mahmoud argued for the deployment of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System and the IRev as the commission’s largest archive and repository of election results.

The respondents protested to the clip’s inclusion, but the court allowed it and included it as one of the exhibits in the petition.

The court deferred the hearing in the petition by LP and Obi to June 16 at the conclusion of their permitted time.