The Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, submitted 18,088 blurred polling unit result sheets and other documents as part of their case before the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) on Thursday.
The documents were tendered by the petitioners’ lawyer, Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), through their fourth witness (PW4), Eric Uwadiegwu Ofoedu, a Professor of Mathematics at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka.
In addition to the blurred result sheets, the petitioners presented a report of the witness’ analysis of election materials, a letter from the LP engaging Prof. Ofoedu for data analysis, and a subpoena requesting his attendance in court and production of the documents.
Lawyers representing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), President Bola Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, and the All Progressives Congress (APC) objected to the majority of the documents. They stated that their objections would be presented during the final written address stage.
Earlier, the lawyers expressed dissatisfaction with the late delivery of the written statement of Ofoedu, arguing that they should have been served earlier to facilitate cross-examination.
It was agreed by both parties’ lawyers that the witness would testify in-chief and return on Friday for cross-examination, a decision endorsed by the court in a brief ruling.
At the end of Thursday’s testimony, Presiding Justice Haruna Tsammani ordered the witness to return on Friday at 9 am for cross-examination.
The petitioners also called their fifth witness (PW5), Lumnie Edevbie, an official of Arive News, who presented a flash drive containing a video recording of a presentation by INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, at the Chatham House in London.
During the video played in court, Prof. Yakubu discussed INEC’s preparations for the previous general elections, including the deployment of technology such as the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the uploading of polling unit results to INEC’s results viewing portal.
He stated that the results uploaded to the INEC Results Viewing (IREV) portal were the same as the polling unit result sheets (EC8A) distributed to party agents.
Another lawyer for the petitioners, Patrick Ikwueto (SAN), mentioned plans to present another video on Friday afternoon when proceedings are set to resume.
