Bola Tinubu, the president of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and the All Progressives Congress (APC) challenged the attendance of subpoenaed witnesses for Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to testify on Wednesday in Abuja.
When the petitioners called the first subpoenaed witness, the respondents felt uneasy and stated that they were not ready to cross-examine the witness because they had only received the witness statement on Wednesday.
The respondents objected to the witness’ testimony, who was allegedly an Ad hoc staff member of INEC during the presidential election on February 25, through their attorney.
Mr. Chris Uche, SAN, the petitioners’ attorney, informed the court that the petitioners had three witnesses they had subpoenaed before calling the first one.
The INEC attorney, Mr. Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN, angrily objected to the witness testifying as soon as he entered the witness box.
Mahmoud claims that I only received the witness’s statement this morning and that I must read it carefully in order to conduct a comprehensive cross examination.
He claimed that the witness could not be called because he was allegedly an Adhoc employee of the Commission and that, in order to establish this and ensure proper preparation, he would need to visit INEC records.
Akin Olujimi, SAN, counsel for Tinubu, and Mr. Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, counsel for the APC, both claimed they needed more time to read the witness statement before conducting a proper cross-examination after receiving it on Thursday.
Uche urged the judge to call at least one of the witnesses who had been summoned, arguing that the statement wasn’t odd enough to call for a postponement.
Uche begged the court to postpone the hearing until Thursday so that the three subpoenaed witnesses could deliver their testimony in response to the respondents’ insistence.
The PDP Collation Agent for Anambra, Mr. Ndubisi Nwobu, had previously been called as the petitioners’ 11th witness.
In his opening statement to the court, Nwobu stated that he was compelled to sign the Form EC8D because it became clear that INEC would not provide him with a copy if he did not.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the result sheet for states is Form EC8D.
The witness said in court during cross-examination by Mr. Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN, that notwithstanding the peaceful election at his voting location, INEC personnel refused to upload the results to the INEC Result Verification Portal (IREV).
” The election went well in my polling unit and the result was entered but we insisted that the result be uploaded on IREV, all efforts proved abortive.
“There was no problem at the polling units, it was at the ward level that magic started happening, “the witness said.
Additionally, he admitted to the court that he went to around 30 of the 4,720 voting locations in Anambra.
The witness further complained to the court during cross-examination by Mr. Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, counsel for the APC, that the real-time upload of results on IREV, as promised by the INEC chairman, had not taken place.
The witness further disclosed that the Labour Party won the election in Anambra to Mr. Akin Olujimi, SAN, counsel to President Bola Tinubu.
All of the respondents objected when the petitioner tried to summon witnesses who had been issued with subpoenas by INEC, claiming that they needed time to read the witness statements.
The proceedings were then put on hold until Thursday as the respondents reviewed the witness statements of the people who had been subpoenaed in preparation for a smooth cross-examination by the court’s chairman, Justice Haruna Tsammani.
INEC, President Tinubu, and the APC are named as respondents in the petition with the file number CA/PEPC/05/2023.
According to NAN, Atiku and the PDP are in court challenging the results of the presidential election held on February 25 on the grounds that they were unlawful due to a failure to comply with the requirements of the Electoral Act, 2022.
According to the petitioners, President Tinubu was not legitimately elected by a majority of the valid votes cast in the election.
