![Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi [PHOTO: TW @PeterObi]](https://ejesgist.ng/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Labour-Party-Presidential-Candidate-Peter-Obi-PHOTO_-TW-@PeterObi.jpg "Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi [PHOTO_ TW @PeterObi]")
Court rejects Peter Obi’s request to interrogate INEC
On Saturday, the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, sitting in Abuja, dismissed an application filed by Mr. Peter Obi, candidate for the Labour Party, for permission to question the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, about the technology it used to conduct the general elections.
In his application, Obi, who is contesting the results of the February 25 presidential election, asked the court to compel the electoral body to respond to 12 key questions he listed in an interrogatory he filed on May 22.
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He wanted INEC to inform the court, among other things, of the date it conducted the functionality test on the purportedly improved technological system it deployed for the elections, as well as the names and details of the individuals who conducted the test.
In addition, he urged the court to compel INEC to provide answers to the following questions: “Who created/deployed the four (4) Applications Patches/Updates to fix the HTTP 500 error that prevented the e-transmission of the Presidential election results on February 25, 2023?
“What was the exact time of the technical malfunction that prevented the e-transmission of the presidential election results on February 25, 2023?
“At what time were the technological glitches repaired or fixed?
“What percentage of the Presidential election results were uploaded to the I-Rev on February 25, 2023?”
“What percentage of the Presidential election results were uploaded to the I-Rev as of the 1st March 2023 declaration of the Presidential election results?
Obi and his party added, “If the Presidential Election was conducted concurrently with the National Assembly Elections on the same day and at the same time using the same technological devices, why were there only problems with the Presidential Election?”
They argued that the Commission’s responses to the questions would be crucial in determining the outcome of the petition they filed to challenge the declaration of President Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, as the winner of the presidential election.
Nonetheless, all Respondents urged the court to reject the application for lack of competence.
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INEC, President Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, and the APC are listed as the petition’s first through fourth respondents.
Meanwhile, on Saturday, a five-member panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani dismissed the application on the grounds that it was filed outside the pre-hearing period.
The panel granted Obi and the LP permission to be played in open court, two video recordings he submitted as evidence.
While in the first video, INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmoud Yukubu, while addressing a press conference prior to the general elections, promised that election results would be electronically transmitted and viewed in real-time by voters.
Mr. Festus Okoye, a National Commissioner of INEC, guarantees in the second video clip that the results will also be transmitted in real-time, with the I-Rev portal made available to citizens.
The court admitted the two video recordings as evidence and designated them as Exhibits, which Channels Television was subpoenaed to produce.
That is the latest Naija news today on Court rejects Peter Obi’s request to interrogate INEC
