PEPT judgement: 25% of FCT votes not needed to win Presidential election
On Thursday, two ad-hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, testified against the electoral umpire before the Presidential Election Petition Court sitting in Abuja.
They were subpoenaed by the Peoples Democratic party and presented before the five-man panel of the court led by Justice Haruna Tsammani.
They explained in their testimonies why the presidential election results were not transmitted into INEC’s results viewing portal on election day as was the national assembly election results.
Their testimonies were taken despite stiff objections from the lawyers representing INEC, President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress.
The respondents urged the court not to take their testimonies until they have thoroughly studied their statements on oath.
But the court held it would rule on their objections later while directing the PDP counsel, Chris Uche SAN to present his witnesses for the day.
Uche then called Friday Egwumah who testified that he served in Abia as one of the INEC adhoc staff.
He adopted his testimony on oath insisting that the election did not go as outlined by INEC.
Under cross examination by INEC, Egwumah told the court that with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System BVAS machine, National Assembly results were scanned and uploaded to the INEC Results Viewing Portal, IRev.
But for the presidential election which was conducted simultaneously, the witness said the BVAS could not transmit the scanned result sheet despite several attempts.
“At my Polling Unit, the election went well. I signed the result form, the party agents signed as well after which I snapped it with the BVAS machine.
“After successfully sending the scanned results of the House of Representatives and Senate, the presidential could not be sent.
“I now took the results signed by me and party agents to the collation centre,” Egwumah replied.
Tinubu’s lawyer, Wole Olanipekun asked the witness if he knew his role as ad-hoc staff of INEC.
The witness said he was aware of the role, adding ” I did not break any law or regulation when performing my duty.”
The second subpoenaed witness presented by the PDP was Grace Timothy, an ad-hoc staff in Plateau state.
She adopted her statement on oath.
Upon cross examination, she said the BVAS machine “did not transmit the presidential poll” but successfully transmitted that of the National Assembly.
After taking their testimonies, the court subsequently adjourned.
Recall that the PDP and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar are contesting the presidential election results declared by INEC in favor of Tinubu.
Atiku claimed he won by majority of lawful votes cast.
So far, he has presented over 10 witnesses who’re largely state collation agents.
The witnesses have claimed that polling unit results were either changed at ward level or altered at the state collation centre.
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