Electoral commission fails to produce witness at hearing over defence of Tinubu’s victory at presidential election

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) could not open its defence on Monday in the suit filed by Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, as the witness could not make it to the court, hence, the panel had to adjourn

Penpushing reports that at the resuming hearing of Obi’s suit challenging the victory of President Bola Tinubu, the lawyer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Abubakar Mahmoud, told the panel that the case would not go on as scheduled

The lawyer, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) therefore requested for adjournment and in similar vein, Tinubu’s lawyer, Wole Olanipekun and All Progressives Congress(APC’s) lawyer, Lateef Fagbemi, did not object to the electoral commission request for an adjournment.

Penpushing further reports that in response, lead counsel of Obi, Livy Uzoukwu, who is challenging Tinubu’s victory, and had finished calling his witnesses over a week ago expressed his dissatisfaction with Mahmoud for not informing him about the witness’ absence before the day’s proceedings.

The Presidential Candidate of Labour Party (LP), aside praying the court to nullify Tinubu’s victory in the February 2, 2023 poll, also accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of manipulating the election in favour of Tinubu.

Penpushing also reports that the five-member panel of the court chaired by Justice Haruna Tsammani afterwards adjourned the suit until Tuesday for further hearings, while it is recalled that at the hearing of Obi’s suit, he tendered several electoral documents comprising Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machines reports and results of the presidential election from across states of Nigeria to aid his case.

The Presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP) also called 13 witnesses to substantiate his claims of fraud against Tinubu and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC’s) non-compliance with relevant provisions of the law in conducting the exercise.

Penpushing reports one of Obi’s issues with the election was the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) failure to upload polling units results of the presidential election in real-time to its INEC Results Viewing (IReV) portal.

Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), however, blamed technical hitches for its inability to electronically transmit polling units’ results of the presidential election to its IReV portal.

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