Kayode Lawal
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Yakubu Mahmood will on Thursday June 15, appear before the Presidential Election Petition Court to give evidence in a petition by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Mahmood has been already been subpoenaed by the Atiku’s legal team led by Chief Chris Uche, SAN.
At Tuesday’s proceedings, Uche announced to the Court that the INEC chairman will during his appearance testify on the conduct of the disputed Presidential election and also tender some sensitive documents in aid of the Presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP.
Uche did not disclose the nature of documents the INEC chief would be required to tender.
The senior lawyer told Justice Haruna Tsammani led panel that he announced Mahmood’ s invitation before the court on Thursday so that the respondents would not be caught unaware.
At Tuesday’s proceedings, Atiku called his first star witness, Dr Alex Adum Ter, a legal practitioner and former Attorney General of Benue State, who alleged that the presidential election was marred with irregularities and non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022.
The witness, who was the National Coordinator, Situation Room for PDP in the February 25 presidential election, tendered three different video clips featuring Mahmood, INEC’s Commissioner in charge of Voter Education, Mr Festus Okoye, who in their broadcast assured Nigerians that presidential election results would be electronically transmitted.
The third video involving European Union Election Observer Mission was admitted as exhibit by the court alongside Guidelines for Election Officers 2022 and Manual for Election Guidelines 2023.
Although, Tinubu and APC objected vehemently against the admissibility of the documents, Justice Tsammani admitted them after which the video clips were played in the open court.
The witness also tendered screen shots of the IReV portal.
Under cross examination by INEC’s lawyer, Mr Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN, the witness admitted that he was not at the National Collation Center but was at the PDP situation room in the Federal Capital Territory.
He admitted he is not an ICT expert but that he based his report on information obtained from agents of the PDP at the collation centers.
The witness faulted INEC for not transmitting presidential election results electronically, adding that calculation errors led the electoral body into grave errors .
Also cross examined by Chief Akin Olujimi SAN, who represented President Tinubu, the witness said that he came to the conclusion that the presidential election was invalid by reason of corrupt electoral practices as related to him by PDP agents.
