Lawyers argue over ‘delay tactics’ | IReV glitch disputed — highlights of Monday’s tribunal session

Lawyers argue over ‘delay tactics’ | IReV glitch disputed — highlights of Monday’s tribunal session

 At the presidential
election petition court on Monday, a witness said there was no network glitch
as suggested by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Here are five major highlights from the proceedings.

‘NO TECHNICAL GLITCH AS CLAIMED BY INEC’

Clarita Ogar, the seventh witness of the Labour Party (LP)
and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, disputed claims that there was a
network glitch during the conduct of the February 25 presidential election.

Ogar is a cloud engineer and architect with Amazon Web
Services Incorporated, a firm which INEC engaged to provide technical support
during the general election.

INEC had said its inability to upload election results to
IReV in real-time was due to technical hitches related to scaling up the
platform from managing off-season and state elections to nationwide polls.

During his testimony, Ogar said the AWS cloud did not record
any technical glitch in the country on February 25.

The subpoenaed witness tendered six reports showing the
status of the AWS dashboard of cloud services in 33 regions and certificates of
compliance.

Although the respondents objected to the admissibility of
the documents, they were entered as exhibits.

LP, INEC BICKER OVER DOCUMENTS

At the court session, LP accused INEC of deliberately using
delay tactics to frustrate the case.

Jibrin Okutepa, counsel to the petitioners, told the court
that INEC is holding the legal team “hostage” by refusing to provide the
documents requested.

He also alleged that INEC has refused to accept the service
of the subpoena issued to them.

Responding, Abubakar Mahmoud, INEC counsel, described
Okutepa’s allegations as “unfounded”. 

STOP BLACKMAILING YOURSELVES, COURT WARNS

The five-member panel of the court warned the parties
against frustrating each other’s case.

The panel urged the lawyers to imbibe the spirit of
cooperation and settle their dispute amicably.

Monsurat Bolaji-Yusuf, the only female on the panel, said
“this allegation is becoming a recurring issue”.

“I think you should realise that sentiments, playing to the
gallery, blackmail or whatever from anybody will not help in the determination
of this case. What will help is cooperating in the interest of this nation,”
she said.

 “You don’t want people
outside to hear that you are being denied documents and the right to present
your case. Therefore we do not want a display of an attempt to blackmail or an
attempt of the other side to frustrate the case of anybody.

“This is a serious business and counsel on all sides should
take it seriously. We do not want a repeat of this.”

APM REFUSES TO WITHDRAW PETITION

The Allied Peoples Movement (APM) refused to discontinue its
petition challenging the election of Bola Tinubu as Nigeria’s president.

Earlier, Wole Olanipekun, counsel to Tinubu and Kashim
Shettima, the vice-president, drew the court’s attention to a judgment of the
supreme court delivered on May 26.

The apex court had dismissed a pre-election appeal filed by
the PDP which claimed Shettima had a double nomination.

However, at the resumed proceeding, Gideon Idiagbonya, APM
counsel, said the party has analysed the judgment and still intends to continue
with the petition.

There was no objection from the respondents as the panel
noted that everyone is at liberty to pursue their petition.

The court fixed Wednesday for APM to call its sole witness.

THREE PRESIDING OFFICERS TESTIFY AGAINST INEC

Three witnesses who served as presiding officers (PO) for
INEC during the February 25 polls told the tribunal that only the results of
the presidential poll failed to upload to the IReV.

The POs are Janet Turaki (Yobe), Christopher Ardo (Bauchi)
and Victoria Sani (Katsina).

They said the results of the senate and house of
representatives polls were transmitted successfully but the presidential
election results could not be transmitted.

The POs said despite complying with the online and offline
transmission methods as they were trained to do, the results failed to upload.

 

Source: Lawyers argue over ‘delay tactics’ | IReV glitch disputed — highlights of Monday’s tribunal session

 - NigerianEye
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