Eric Ofoedu, a mathematics professor, testified on Thursday before the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, in the case filed by Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP, saying INEC uploaded over eighteen thousand blurred results.
Prof. Ofoedu testified in court that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, uploaded to its election result viewing portal, IReV, over 18,088 blurred result sheets from the presidential election on February 25.
The professor, who told the court he worked at Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Awka, Anambra State, was the fourth witness to testify in Obi’s and his party’s joint petition to challenge the outcome of the presidential election.
He told the court that he discovered unreadable data on the electoral body’s portal while analysing the election results and that he paid close attention to the outcome of the election in Rivers and Benue states.
All of the Respondents in the case opposed the witness’s motion to tender some documents in evidence.
The Respondents, who also objected to Prof. Ofoedu’s oath statement being admitted as an exhibit before the court, stated that they would provide reasons for their objections in their final written address.
INEC’s lawyer, Mr. Abubakar Mahmood, SAN, specifically told the court that he was served with a witness statement shortly before the proceeding began. He argued that with the development, he would not be able to effectively cross-examine the witness.
Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, counsel for President Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima, as well as Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, counsel for the All Progressives Congress, APC, supported his request for the petitioners to withdraw the Respondent’s evidence.
Despite the fact that the five-member panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani did not allow the witness to give his testimony or tender the exhibits, it stated that it would rule on the respondents’ objections before issuing a decision in the case.
Among the documents presented in court by the witness were a report of data analysis of the election, an investigation into INEC results viewing scores, and separate data analysis of election results in Rivers and Benue states.
While the court accepted the reports and labelled them as exhibits PCG1-PVG3, it also admitted in evidence, blurred IReV polling unit results from 18,088 polling units across the federation. The court today granted the respondents permission to cross-examine the witness based on agreement by all parties.
Meanwhile, after Prof. Ofoedu was excused from the witness stand, the petitioners called their fifth witness, PW-5, Lumnie Edevbie, an Arise News Television employee who was summoned to produce a video exhibit.
The exhibit, which was on a flash drive, contained a video recording of a speech delivered by INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu at Chatham House in London on January 17.
INEC Chairman Prof. Yakubu made a case for the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, as well as the IRev for the conduct of the general elections in a video clip played in open court, describing them as the commission’s largest archive and repository of election results. Although the respondents objected to the admissibility of the evidence, the court admitted it and marked it as one of the exhibits in the petition.
The court stated that it would rule on the objections before issuing its final decision, even though it adjourned further hearing on the petition until today. Obi, who claims he won the presidential election, is asking the court to overturn Tinubu’s victory and withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to him by INEC.