The Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja accepted a contentious report from the European Union (EU) Observation Mission on Monday, despite opposition from President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
This report calls into question the legitimacy of the 2023 general elections’ results. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), presented this report to the court.
He argued that the February 25 presidential election was skewed in favour of President Tinubu and the ruling APC.
Atiku, along with his party, alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) used a third-party device to redirect and assign votes to Tinubu.
Although INEC denied this allegation in their response to the petition, Mr Lawrence Bayode, the Deputy Director of ICT at the Commission, was called to the witness stand on Monday to uphold the presidential election’s results.
In an attempt to refute Atiku’s claim that Tinubu’s running mate held two elective positions, Bayode presented several documents, including a July 6, 2022, letter from Vice President Kashim Shettima to INEC.
This letter announced his withdrawal from the Borno Central Senatorial election as the APC candidate. Bayode, guided by INEC’s lead counsel, Mr Abubakar Mahmoud, tendered this letter and its certification, which the court accepted as evidence.
During cross-examination by President Tinubu’s lead counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun, Bayode defended the presidential election as “free, fair, credible, and conducted in substantial compliance with the Electoral Act.”
While Bayode admitted to a technical glitch on the presidential election day, he insisted this didn’t impact the final scores of the presidential candidates.
He also clarified that the presidential election results were collated manually, not electronically, stating that INEC lacks an electronic collation system.
He reiterated the Commission’s Chairman’s assertion that electronic transmission of the election results was unfeasible.
When it came to cross-examination by Atiku’s lawyer, a contested moment arose over a certified copy of the final report by the EU Observation Mission.
Despite objections from President Tinubu and the APC, the court admitted the report as evidence.
The report suggested that the election was not as “transparent and inclusive” as promised by INEC and only “31% of results uploaded in I-REV was formally or mathematically correct.”
Despite these points, Bayode insisted that the technological measures introduced by INEC ensured the transparency and integrity of the results.
Once Bayode was discharged from the stand, INEC’s lawyer, Mahmoud, announced the end of his client’s witness testimonies.
Following this, President Tinubu and Vice-President Shettima’s counsel, Chief Olanipekun, announced their intention to begin their defence on Tuesday.
Atiku, who placed second in the presidential race, ended his case after calling 27 of the 100 witnesses he had arranged to testify.
He continues to seek the court’s withdrawal of the Certificate of Return issued to President Tinubu by INEC.
