• Atiku, PDP call witnesses, tender more documents
Some witnesses in the hearing of the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, against the election of President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday told the panel hearing the complaint that results from the presidential poll were transmitted into a server belonging to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Two of the six witnesses called by the petitioners said they served as ad-hoc staff of INEC and testified that results were transmitted electronically to the commission’s server.
One of them, Mr. Peter Obi, an Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) expert, said emphatically that election results were transmitted from polling units to INEC’s server.
Obi told the tribunal that he was trained by INEC as a Registration Area Technician and was shortlisted by INEC for the 2019 election result transmission.
“I am an ICT expert who transmitted election results to INEC server. I was trained by INEC as a Registration Area Technician for the transmission of election results,” he said.
Obi, who earlier adopted his witness statement on oath, which he deposed to on April 26, as his evidence-in-chief, said this while fielding questions from INEC’s lawyer, Yunus Usman (SAN), under cross-examination.
“You are not supposed to transmit results because you are not a presiding officer,” Usman said.
Responding, Obi said: “You are wrong, sir. INEC trained us to transmit results. I was not a presiding officer. I was not a polling agent. I was a registration area technician appointed by INEC. I was trained by INEC.”
Fielding questions from Buhari’s lawyer, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), he said he was not aware of the guidelines used by INEC for the presidential election, but there were specific guidelines booklet issued for his roles as a RATECH.
Scannews
