The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, sitting in Abuja, rejected a request made by Mr. Peter Obi, the candidate for the Labour Party, LP, for permission to question the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, about the technology it used to conduct the general elections.
Obi, who is contesting the results of the February 25 presidential election, specifically asked the court in his plea to order the electoral commission to respond to 12 important issues he had included in an interrogatory he had submitted on May 22, 2023.
He requested that INEC provide the court with information such as the date the purportedly upgraded technological system it used for the elections underwent a functional test as well as the names and contact information of individuals who conducted the test.
In addition, he requested that the court order INEC to provide its responses to the following questions: “Who developed/deployed the four (4) application patches/updates to resolve the HTTP 500 problem that prohibited the e-transmission of the Presidential election results on February 25, 2023?
“What was the exact time of the occurrence of the technical glitch which prevented the e-transmission of the result of the Presidential election on 25th February 2023?
“What time were the technological glitches fixed and or repaired?
“What percentage of the result of the Presidential election was uploaded on the I-Rev on 25th February 2023?
“What percentage of the result of the Presidential election was uploaded on the I-Rev as at the time of the declaration of the Result of the Presidential election on 1st March 2023?
“If the Presidential Election was conducted concurrently with the National Assembly Elections on the same day and at the same time using the same technological devices, why were there glitches only with respect to the Presidential Election?,” Obi and his party added.
They insisted that the determination of the suit they filed to contest the declaration of President Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, as the winner of the presidential election, would be greatly influenced by the Commission’s responses to the questions.
Nevertheless, the court was urged to reject the motion for lack of competence by each Respondent in the case.
The INEC, President Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, and the APC are listed as the petition’s first through fourth respondents.
In the meantime, on Saturday, a five-member panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani unanimously decided to reject the case on the grounds that it had been submitted after the pre-hearing period had ended.
The panel approved Obi and the LP to play the two videos they had submitted as evidence in open court.
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yukubu, stated in the first video that the election results would be electronically communicated and available to voters in real-time during a news conference prior to the general elections.
In the second video, Mr. Festus Okoye, a National Commissioner for INEC, gave the same assurance that results would be made available to citizens via the I-Rev portal and sent in real time.
The two video recordings, which the court designated as Exhibits and allowed in evidence, were demanded from Channels Television by subpoena.
