INEC chairman spoke of difficulties in transmitting result, Buhari’s lawyer opens up at presidential tribunal

Another revelation came up at at the Presidential election petition tribunal on Tuesday when President Muhammadu Buhari’s lawyer, Alex Izinyon, tendered a video clip where the chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, was discussing the difficulty in transmitting election results, on Channels Television.

Izinyon tendered the clip at the resumed cross-examination of the star witness of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), and campaign spokesperson of the Atiku presidential campaign, Mr Segun Showunmi.

While playing the clip, the INEC chairman was quoted as having said; “Recall that we have had discussions with the NCC, telecommunication, about experiencing blind spots, and how difficult it could be transmitting results in blind spots.”

He said, “We still need to do a lot more before we can use the technology of transmitting the results of election(s),”

While also dwelling on cybersecurity, Yakubu said, “We also have issues in the area of cyber security.”

After playing the clip, Izinyon asked the witness twice if he could identify the INEC chairman, he said:  “He could be.”

But when asked to identify the interviewer, Showunmi said, “Yes, that is Seun Okinbaloye.”

He went on to confirm the Channels TV logo on the clip.

Consequently, Izinyon made attempt to tender the video and its certificate of compliance before the tribunal, but it was objected to by the counsel to the petitioners, Chris Uche.

Justifying his objection, Uche argued that the respondent could not be tendering evidence about the same time they were doing so, advising that “they will have their time.”

Subsequently, the Mohammed Garba led five-member panel asked Uche to reserve his objection till the final address stage.

He thereafter tendered as evidence the clip as exhibit P85 and the certificate of compliance as exhibit P86.

Meanwhile after the one-hour break, a local government collation officer for the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Abubakar Abdullahi, accused the two agents of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Isah Haliru and Ibrahim Mukhtar for intimidating and harassing them with political thugs during the elections.

“We tried to stop the APC agents, security officers and myself, from voting for the voters. The APC ward councilor brought more than 10 people to harass me but I was saved by some elderly men in the village.” He explained.

According to Abdullahi, the matter was reported to security agents at the polling unit.

He said although the APC agents were arrested, the APC agents who perpetrated the acts at the February 23 elections were never prosecuted.

He said the development coupled with incidence of electoral fraud at his polling unit made him not to sign his copy of the result sheet, the form EC8C.

Leave a Reply