The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) wrapped up its defence on Tuesday, July 4, in response to Peter Obi's petition challenging the outcome of the presidential election held on Saturday, February 25, 2023.
According to The Cable, Lawrence Bayode, an information technology (IT) expert and deputy director of ICT at INEC, testified as a witness during the court session. Bayode's examination was led by Abubakar Mahmoud, INEC's lawyer.
During the cross-examination by Wole Olanipekun (SAN), the lead counsel for President Bola Tinubu and vice-president Kashim Shettima, Bayode affirmed that certain blurry documents downloaded from INEC's result viewing portal (IreV) were irrelevant for the collation of presidential election results, as reported by Vanguard newspaper.
The alleged inconsistency between the INEC results available online and the physical records constitutes one of the main arguments in Obi's challenge to President Tinubu's victory in the 2023 election. However, Bayode clarified that if the downloaded sheets from IreV were unclear, the physical copies of the results could be obtained.
After Bayode's testimony, Mahmoud informed the court that they had no further witnesses to present. Consequently, Olanipekun announced the intention of the APC candidates to initiate their defence. As a result, the five-member panel, led by Haruna Tsammani, adjourned the proceedings until Wednesday, July 5, to allow the president and vice-president to present their defence in response to the petition.
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