Professor Yakubu Mahmood, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, is scheduled to appear before the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja on June 15 to testify on behalf of the Peoples Democratic Party and former vice president Atiku Abubakar, the party’s presidential candidate in the election held on February 25.
The PDP and Atiku are contesting Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s election as president.
The development came after Chief Chris Uche, SAN, of Atiku’s legal team, served Mahmood with a subpoena.
Uche informed the Court that the INEC Chairman would testify regarding the handling of the contentious Presidential election and provide some sensitive documents to help the petitioners.
However, Atiku’s lead counsel did not open up on the nature of documents the INEC boss is expected to give evidence on and tender.
Uche told the PEPC that he decided to announce to the court of his intention to bring Mahmood before the court on Thursday so that the respondents especially Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) would not be caught unaware.
Meanwhile, at Tuesday’s proceedings, Atiku called his first star witness, Dr Alex Adum Ter, a legal practitioner and former Attorney General of Benue State, who in his testimony claimed that the presidential election was highly flawed with monumental irregularities and non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022.
The witness, a National Coordinator, Situation Room for PDP on the February 25, presidential election had tendered three different video clips featuring Mahmood, INEC’s Commissioner in charge of Voter Education, Mr Festus Okoye, who in their broadcast assured Nigerians that presidential election results would be electronically transmitted to make the election credible and transparent.
The third video involving European Union Election Observer Mission was admitted as exhibits by the court alongside Guidelines for Election Officers 2022 and Manual for Election Guidelines 2023.
Though, Tinubu and APC opposed the admissibility of the documents, Chairman of PEPC Justice Haruna Tsammani admitted them after which the video clips were played in the open court.
The witness also tendered screen shots of the IReV portal.
However, upon cross examination by INEC’s lawyer, Abubakar Mahmoud SAN, the witness admitted that he was not at the National Collation Center but was at the PDP situation room in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The witness also admitted not being an ICT expert but that he based his report from information obtained from agents of the PDP at the collation centers.
The witness faulted INEC for not transmitting presidential election results electronically, adding that calculation errors led the electoral body into grave errors .
Under cross examined by Akin Olujimi SAN, counsel for Tinubu, the witness said he came to the conclusion that the presidential election was a sham by reason of corrupt electoral practices as related to him by PDP agents.
