Candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Mr Peter Obi, who alleged that the presidential election held on February 25 was rigged in favour of President Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, on Friday, closed his case.
The petitioners closed their case after he tendered several documentary evidence and called a total of 13 witnesses that testified before the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, sitting in Abuja.
Among exhibits he tendered before the court included polling unit results from 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, as well as bundle of documents containing the total number of Permanent Voters Card, PVCs, that were collected in 32 states prior to the 2023 general elections.
Aside from tendering four video exhibits, one of which was a press conference, where the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, assured that results of the election would be electronically transmitted to the IReV portal in real-time using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, machines, Obi and his party, equally tendered bundle of documents that contained the total number of registered voters in each of the states.
Other electoral documents the court admitted in evidence were certified true copies of INEC Forms EC40Gs; EC40G1; EC40GPU, which were reports of various polling units where elections did not hold.
However, all the Respondents had challenged the admissibility of all the documents in evidence, saying they would adduce reasons behind their objections in their final written address.
Meanwhile, though the Petitioners initially told the court that they would call a total of 50 witnesses to testify in the matter, however, they closed their case on Friday with the testimony of the 13th witness.
Earlier in the proceeding, Mr. Tanko Yunusa, who testified as the 12th witness, told the court that he served as the Chief Spokesman of the Labour Party Presidential Election Council as well as the National Director of Media in the party.
He told the court under cross-examination that during the presidential poll, he voted at Dawaki district of Abuja and afterwards went to LP’s Election Situation Room at Asokoro. The witness however said he did not state any figure to indicate the number of unlawful votes that were credited to President Tinubu and the APC, in his statement on oath.
Yunusa further told the court that though there are176, 974 polling units in the country, his party, deployed a total of 133, 000 agents to monitor the elections.
BY IYABO AINA
No comments:
Post a Comment