Alex Enumah in Abuja
Prof. Eric Ofoedu, a witness of the candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the last presidential election, Mr Peter Obi, on Thursday, told the Presidential Election Petition Court (PREPEC) that over 18,088 result sheets uploaded unto the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC’s) Result Viewing (IReV) portal were blurred.
Ofoedu, a Professor of Mathematics at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, and fourth witness to testify in the petition of Obi and LP against the election of President Bola Tinubu, said he discovered the above fact at the end of his investigation and analysis of the February 25 presidential results uploaded on the IReV portal.
Among the states he claimed his investigation and analysis were centred on are Rivers and Benue.
However, as it has been since the beginning of hearing, all respondents objected to the witness, as well as the exhibits tendered through him.
Shortly after he was led by Obi’s lawyer, Chief Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), to adopt his witness statement on oath as his evidence in the petition, INEC’s lawyer, Mr Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN), told the court that he was served the statement in court and he is therefore handicapped on how to go about the proceedings.
Mahmoud subsequently urged the petitioners to step down the witness so as to afford the respondents time to prepare for the cross-examination of the witness.
This same position was taken by Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) representing Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shetimma; and Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) representing the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The respondents also added that the reasons for their objections to the witness and his exhibits will be provided in their final address.
Responding, the five-member panel, while permitting the witness to give his testimony and also admitting his documents as exhibits, stated that its ruling on the respondents’ objection would be delivered alongside with the final judgment.
Amongst the documents admitted as exhibits are: report of data analysis of the election, INEC Results Viewing scores investigation, and separate data analysis of results in Rivers and Benue States.
Besides the reports, which were admitted and marked by the court as exhibits PCG1 – PVG3 respectively, the court also admitted in evidence blurred polling units’ results from IReV in 18,088 polling units across the country.
Following an agreement that the witness be cross-examined on Friday, the petitioners then called in their fifth witness, a subpoenaed staff of Arise News Television, who tendered in evidence a copy of a flash drive containing a video clip of INEC’s chairman, Yakubu Mahmood’s speech at Chatham’s House, in London on January 17.
The witness, Lumnie Edevbie, was led in evidence by the counsel to the petitioners, Patrick Ikweato (SAN).
The INEC boss, in the reviewed broadcast, was seen and heard making a case for the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the IRev as the commission’s biggest archive and repository of the results of the election.
Although, the respondents objected to the admissibility of the evidence, the court however admitted it and marked it as one of the exhibits in the petition, adding that ruling will be delivered alongside the final judgment.
Hearing continues Friday with the cross-examination of Ofoedu by the respondents and other issues on the schedule of the court.
