INEC, APC, Tinubu oppose Atiku’s subpoenaed witnesses

 

CHIGOZIE IKPO, Abuja

 

The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress, (APC) on Wednesday in Abuja, were unsettled of as Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) on Wednesday invited their subpoenaed witness to testify before the court.

 

Atiku called his first subpoenaed witness at the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPEC) to tender some sensitive documents but the move was vehemently opposed by INEC and Tinubu.

 

Counsel to the petitioners, Mr. Chris Uche, SAN, informed the court that the petitioners had three subpoenaed witnesses and went ahead to call the first one who was said to be an Ad hoc staff of INEC during the Feb. 25 presidential election.

 

As soon as the witness entered the witness box, counsel to INEC, Mr Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN, vehemently opposed to the witness giving his testimony.

 

According to Mahmoud, I was only served this morning with the statement of the witness and as such, I have to study the statement in order to do a thorough cross examination.

 

He insisted that the witness could not be taken since he was said to be an Adhoc staff of the Commission and as such he would have to go and look at INEC records to enable him confirm the status of the witness and prepare adequately.

 

Counsel for Tinubu, Akin Olujimi, SAN, that of the APC, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, also said they were served with the witness statement on Thursday and needed time to peruse it for proper cross examination.

 

Attempts by Uche to insist that the witness be taken saying ordinarily, subpoenaed witness statement didn’t have to be front loaded were futile as the respondents insisted that they had to peruse the statements.

 

Uche pleaded with the court to take at least one of the subpoenaed witnesses, saying there was nothing strange in the statement to warrant an adjournment.

 

Following the respondents insistence, Uche urged the court to adjourn untill Thursday for the three subpoenaed witnesses to give their testimony.

 

Earlier, Mr. Uche tendered bundles of copies of Forms EC8B from 11 Local Government Areas in Kogi States, which were admitted by the court after the respondents registered their objection and promised to provide reasons later.

 

He also called their 11th witness, Mr. Ndubisi Nwobu, the PDP Collation Agent for Anambra.

 

Nwobu, in his evidence-in-chief told the court that he was forced to sign the Form EC8D (result sheet for states) because he was told that without signing it, he would not be given a copy.

 

During cross examination by Mr. Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN, the witness told the court that although the election was peaceful at his polling unit, INEC officials refused to upload the results to INEC Result Verification Portal, (IREV).

 

” The election went well in my polling unit and the result was entered but we insisted that the result be uploaded on IREV, all efforts proved abortive.

 

“There was no problem at the polling units, it was at the ward level that magic started happening, “the witness said.

 

He also told the court that he visited about 30 out of the 4,720 polling units in Anambra.

 

Also while being cross-examined by Mr. Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, counsel to the APC, the witness told the court that his major grouse with the election was that there was no real-time upload of results on IREV as was promised by the INEC chairman.

 

The witness also told Mr Akin Olujimi, SAN, counsel to President Bola Tinubu that Labour Party won the election in Anambra.

 

When the petitioner attempted to call witnesses subpoenaed from INEC, all the respondents objected on the grounds that they had just been served with the witness statements and they needed to peruse them.

 

The Presiding Judge of the Court, Justice Haruna Tsammani thereafter adjourned proceedings until Thursday, May 8 for further hearing.