JUDICIARY
INEC Closes Defense in Obi/LP Petition, Tenders Documents
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has opened and closed its defense in the petition by Peter Obi and the Labour Party (LP) before the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC).
INEC’s lawyer, Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN, announced the closure of the first respondent’s case after the conclusion of the testimony of its sole witness, Dr Lawrence Bayode, a Deputy Director in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Department of INEC.
Before calling on it’s witness, INEC tendered some documents which were admitted and marked as exhibits.
Led in chief by Mahmood, the witness told the court that he worked for INECfor 24 years .
Under cross examination by Patrick Ikwueto, SAN counsel for the petitioners the witness told the court that the testing of the software application for the election was carried out on Feb 4.
He added that there was a report on the testing but it was not with him in the court.
The petitioners however, tendered the E- transmission saver Web and compliance form through the witness and was admitted and marked as evidence .
The witness told the court that the pre-production test was carried out before the election.
When asked if the hard copy of the results would be different from the ones in the IreV, he said no.
He however, added that anything could happen when sending the results from form EC8A to the IreV.
He admitted that performance, functionality and vulnerability tests were carried out before the election.
The witness agreed with Ikwueto that the report of the e-Transmission application identifies remediation to be undertaken to resolve the high vulnerability identified in the report.
The witness said he does not know INEC ‘s web address were it’s materials are published.
In his cross examination, Wole Olanipekun , SAN counsel for Tinubu and Shettima asked if foundation and authenticity of any election by INEC is rooted in forms EC8A and EC8E, the witness said yes.
The witness added that blurred documents downloaded from INEC IreV would not affect the physical results in form EC8A because the image there is not relevant.
He said the election is ended with the recording , snapping and sending to INEC ‘s IreV.
Answering questions from APC counsel, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, the witness said the physical results are use for computing the election final results.
He said the glitches that occurred on the day of the election did not affect the collation of the results.
He added that if what was downloaded from the IreV are not clear the physical results could also be obtained.
He told the court further that ECOWAS monitored the election but he does not have their report.
The witness stated that the cloud trial log account of INEC can be obtained from Amazon Web services (AWS).
He added that this shows the patches that were deployed on E- transmission applications on AWS to fix the glitches that that was encountered on election day.
After the testimony of the sole witness, Mahmoud told the court that f INEC’s defense in the Obi and Labour Party petition is closed.
Olanipekun later told the court that Tinubu and Shetimma, who are listed as second and third respondents in the petition will tomorrow open their defence.
The five-member panel presided over by Justice Haruna Tsammani adjourned until tomorrow for the Tinubu and Shettima to open their defence.
Obi and his Labour Party (LP) are petitioners in the petition marked CA/PEPC/03/2023 challenging the election which brought president Bola Tinubu into power
Respondents are Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) president Bola Tinubu and Vice president Kashim Shettima and All Progressives Congress (APC.) NAN)
A Jos Magistrates’ Court on Friday sentenced a 38 -year-old sales representative to six months imprisonment for fleeing after eating and drinking in a restaurant.
The Magistrate, Shawomi Bokkos, summarily tried and sentenced the convict after he pleaded guilty to the charge.
Bokkos in his judgment, ordered the convict to pay an option of N10,000fine or spend three months in prison.
The magistrate also ordered the convict to N23,500 to the restaurant owner or another three months in prison in default.
Earlier, the Prosecutor, Insp. Ibrahim Gokwat told the court that the case was reported on Aug.27, at the “A” Division Police station by one Charles Nentok, the complainant.
Gokwat said that the convict went to the restaurant, ordered food and assorted drinks worth N23,500 and took to his heels.
The prosecutor said he was later caught and taken to the police station.
The police said that the offence contravened the Plateau State Penal Code Law.(NAN)
The Chief Judge of Delta State, Justice Tessy Diai, has granted freedom to one inmate, Napue Chitu, at the Warri Correctional Centre.
The Public Relations Officer of the state Ministry of Justice, Mr Onoriode Etatsemi disclosed this in a press statement in Asaba on Friday.
The statement said that Chitu was released by the chief judge, during a visit to the correctional centre .
It said that a total of 379 warrants were reviewed during the visit but only Chitu was released as other inmates still have ongoing cases in court.
(NAN)
An Ondo High Court in Akure on Thursday set aside the suit challenging the candidature of Mr Olugbenga Edema as the flag-bearer of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) for the Nov. 16 governorship election in the state.Delivering judgment, Justice Oluyemi Osadabay, held that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit filed by a factional candidate of the party, Mr Michael Akintan, and his deputy, Mrs Kemi Fasua.
They are challenging the emergence of Edema as the candidate of the party. Edema , a former lawmaker, emerged as the candidate of the party on June 5, after the former candidate, Mr Oluwatosin Ayeni stepped down for him.He chose Dr Rotimi Adeyemi as his running mate.Ayeni was later made the official spokesperson of the candidate and the Director-General of Ondo State NNPP Gubernatorial Campaign Council after his resignation as a candidate.However, in an originating summons filed by Akintan, Fasua, Dr Gilbert Agbo, and Comrade Oginni Olaposi, members of the party,questioned the emergence of Edema as the candidate of NNPP and his running mate.In the suit, plaintiffs through their counsel, Mr Monday Mawah sought the court’s judgment on whether, in light of Sections 77 (2) and 77(3) of the Electoral Act 2022, the party was required to submit the register of members to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) no later than 30 days before the party’s primary.The primary held on April 26.They also asked whether, based on section 77(3), the defendant, whose name did not appear in the submitted register of the party, could validly claim membership in the party as at the party’s primary date.The claimants were seeking injunctive and declarative reliefs, including a perpetual injunction to restrain Edema from presenting himself as a member and the candidate of the NNPP in on the state for the Nov. 16 governorship election.But the defendants, through their lawyer, Mr Rotimi Olorunfemi, asked the court to dismiss or strike out the suit for constituting a gross abuse of the court process.Olorunfemi said the suit was supposed to be filed at the Federal High Court, being a pre-election matter.He stated that the issue of jurisdiction was a matter that would go to the root and the competence of a court with adjudicatory power on a suit before it.“ Since the court has no jurisdiction, the case should be dismissed with cost against the claimants,” he said.In her judgment, Justice Osadabay struck out the suit for lack of jurisdiction.She said since the case fell within the pre-election matter, it was only the Federal High Court that could decide to entertain the case.The judge awarded N100.000 against the claimants.Reacting to the judgment, Edema said the judgment had led to rest the issue of whether he was a member or a candidate of NNPP. “We knew a lot of people who are our adversaries were looking forward to dividing us.“But thank God, apart from the judgment of this court, we have come together as a party to be one family.“So, we are going to walk into this election as one family of NNPP.So, to the glory of God, the people of NNPP should rest assured that their candidate of NNPP is now on the ballot in the eye of the law and squarely.“ And come Nov. 16, we will win with the support of the people of NNPP and God,” he said.Similarly, Akintan said he was ready to accept Edema as the candidate of the party.He said the court had decided the candidate and he would abide by the decision.Edema was also the Chairman of Ondo State Oil Producing Area Development Commission (OSOPADEC).( NAN)
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