Peter Obi vs Bola Tinubu: Details Emerge as INEC Closes Case in Labour Party's Petition

• The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has opened and closed its defence in the much-followed legal tussle at the presidential election petition court (PEPC)
• The petition is filed by presidential hopeful, Peter Gregory Obi and the Labour Party (LP) before the court in Abuja
• INEC's first witness on Tuesday, July 4, said although some IREV results were truly not clear, the final score garnered by Obi was not affected by the technical glitch experienced by the commission

FCT, Abuja - The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Tuesday, July 4, opened and closed its defence in Peter Obi’s petition challenging the result of the Saturday, February 25, 2023, presidential election.

At the court session, Lawrence Bayode, an information technology (IT) expert, was led in evidence by Abubakar Mahmoud, who is INEC's lawyer, The Cable reported.

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'Obi's score not affected by technical glitch': INEC

The witness, Bayode, who is a deputy director of ICT at the electoral commission, while being cross-examined by President Bola Tinubu and vice-president Kashim Shettima’s lead counsel, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), maintained that some blurred documents downloaded from INEC's result viewing portal (IreV) were irrelevant for the collation of results of the presidential election, Vanguard newspaper also reported.

Alleged discrepancy between some of the INEC results on the web and the physical ones is one of the grounds on which Obi is contesting the outcome of the 2023 election which brought President Tinubu to power.

But Bayode added that if the sheets downloaded from the IreV are not clear, the physical results could also be obtained.

After the witness was discharged, Mahmoud told the court that they had no other witness to call.

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Consequently, Olanipekun announced the intention of the APC candidates to open their defence.

Hence, the five-member panel led by Haruna Tsammani adjourned the matter till Wednesday, July 5, for the president and vice-president to open their defence to the petition.

PEPC: Finally, President Tinubu, INEC, APC open defence at tribunal over alleged 2023 poll rigging

In a piece of related news, Legit.ng reported that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is set to open his defence at the ongoing presidential election petition tribunal.

The development was confirmed in a report by BBC Pidgin, where it was noted that President Tinubu would open his defence as the second respondent in the petition presented before the court by Labour Party's Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) challenging Tinubu's victory at the presidential poll on Saturday, February 25.

Tinubu won the disputed election with 8,794,726 total votes. Runners-up were former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); and Obi who collected 6,984,520 and 6,101,533 votes respectively.

Source: Legit.ng