On Friday, Ijeoma Osamor, the anchor of AIT’s Democracy Today program, contradicted the claims made by the counsel for the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the Presidential Election Petition Court. Osamor asserted that the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmood Yakubu, did not announce that the results of the February 25 presidential elections would no longer be uploaded and transmitted in real-time.
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Osamor’s disagreement occurred during the dispute over the presidential election results, raised by the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, at the Presidential Election Petition Court. One of the grounds mentioned by the petitioners was that the commission, specifically its chairman, failed to fulfill his promise of real-time uploading of results sent to the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System to the INEC Results Viewing portal.
During the proceedings, video evidence was presented by the petitioners, featuring clips of the INEC chairman assuring the use of technology in the presidential election. On Friday, another flash drive was admitted as evidence, and a clip of Mahmoud delivering a speech emphasizing the deployment of BVAS and IReV for the elections was played in the open court. The event had been broadcast live on AIT’s Democracy Today program, which was anchored by Osamor, who had been subpoenaed to appear before the court.
During the cross-examination, the counsel for the APC, Abiodun Owonikoko (SAN), questioned the reporter about her knowledge of a press statement made by the INEC chairman a few days before the election, stating that the results would no longer be uploaded in real-time. Owonikoko cited a publication by The Tribune on February 23 to support his claim.
However, the reporter maintained that she had been present during the press briefing and at the collation center on the mentioned day and stated that Mahmoud did not make such a statement. She mentioned that while her news organization focused on live coverage, the newspaper publication might have been based on an interview with another reporter.
After the witness was discharged, the five-man panel of the court adjourned the further hearing in the petition filed by the Labour Party and Peter Obi to Monday, June 19.
Dino Melaye Testifies.
Dino Melaye, the National Collation Agent of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 25 presidential election, gave testimony at the Presidential Election Petition Court. He stated that the result used to declare Bola Tinubu as the president by the electoral commission was fraudulent and incorrectly calculated.
Melaye, serving as a star witness for the PDP and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, testified that he refused to sign the final collated results to distance himself from the alleged fraud and malpractices during the collation process. According to him, the presidential election results were inaccurately computed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He made it clear that he did not endorse the results because he does not support fraudulent activities. Melaye further revealed that many PDP agents in the presidential election also did not sign the results at various levels.
During cross-examination by Bola Tinubu’s lawyer, Akin Olujimi, the witness argued that the failure to transmit the recorded results electronically infringed upon the law. Additionally, he stated that the election process could not be considered complete without the electronic transmission of results from the polling units to the INEC results viewing portal.
