Court denies Obi’s request to interrogate INEC on technologies deployed for the presidential election

Chigozie Ikpo, Abuja

The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) sitting in Abuja on Saturday, dismissed an application by Mr. Peter Obi and the Labour Party (LP), seeking to interrogate the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC on the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) deployed and the experts used for the conduct of the February 25 election.

Obi, in two separate motions filed on May 26 and June 2 respectively, sought to know the quality of the ICT experts deployed in the use of technology for the conduct, of the election and prayed the Court to compel INEC to supply them with names and profile of ICT personnel that handled the technological aspects of the election.

He posed 12 questions to be forwarded to the electoral body for answers so as to aid him and LP in establishing their allegations of poor conduct especially malpractices in the conduct of the election.
He claimed that the request if granted would assist him in the effective presentation of his petition challenging the declaration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the winner of the election.

However, the respondents, INEC, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Vice President, Kashim Shetimma, and the All Progressives Congress (APC) listed as 1st to 4th respondents objected to Obi’s bid to subject INEC to interrogation through the applications.

They argued that Obi’s applications had become belated because he brought them outside the time allowed by law.

In a unanimous decision on Saturday, Justice Haruna Tsammani-led’s five-member panel struck out the application on the premise that it was filed outside the pre-hearing period.

Meanwhile, the panel gave Obi and the LP the nod to play in the open court, two video recordings he tendered in evidence.

While in the first video, the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yukubu, while addressing a press conference before the general elections, assured that the results of the election would be electronically transmitted with electorates being able to view the results in real-time.

In the second video clip, an INEC National Commissioner, Mr. Festus Okoye, equally assured that the results would also be transmitted in real-time with the I-Rev portal made accessible to citizens.
Channels Television was subpoenaed to produce the two video recordings, which the court admitted in evidence and marked as Exhibits.