The Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, asserts that some of the papers sought by Mr. Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s (LP) presidential candidate for the 2023 election, to be submitted as evidence in the Presidential Election Tribunal, are nonexistent.
In a lawsuit with the case number CA/PEPC/03/2023, Obi and the Labour Party (LP) contest President Bola Tinubu’s election on February 25.
Peter Obi is allegedly requesting nonexistent papers in his appeal against Tinubu, according to INEC. INEC, President Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, and their All Progressives Congress (APC) are included as respondents in the petition.
In testimony before the court, Mr. Lawrence Bayode, Deputy Director, ICT at INEC, stated that of the five papers Obi requested, two were missing and one was still under construction.
One of Obi’s witnesses, Ms. Loretta Ogah, an ICT cloud engineer, claimed she ran for office in Cross River as a candidate for the Labour Party but lost the election.
Mr. Wole Olanipakun (SAN), the attorney for Tinubu and Shettima, cross-examined Ogah.
The electoral umpire failed to put her name on its webpage due to a network outage, she said in court, so she sued INEC after losing.
Ogah said during cross-examination by Mr. Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), counsel for the APC, that faults on the INEC website did not happen on February 25.
She said that because she was not an INEC employee, she was unaware of the password policy.
Further hearing were postponed till Wednesday by the justice Haruna Tsammani-presiding court.