Petitioners berate INEC over delay in providing documents, with barely days to close of cases at PEPT

With barely two days left for close of presentations by petitioners; the Peoples Democratic Party and Atiku Abubakar, the Labour Party joined by Peter Obi, proceedings resumed at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT), Tuesday, as more witnesses were called up to the stands.

PDP and Atiku also tendered more documents in aid of their petition before the presidential election petition court, through their lead counsel, Chris Uche, SAN, who presented 14 batches of certified true copies (CTCs) of the voter’s register of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The documents were provided by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) following a subpoena on its chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu by the PDP.

Counsel to INEC Abubakar Mahmud SAN, that of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Wole Olanipekun SAN and the All Progressives Congress (APC), Lateef Fagbemi SAN objected to the admissibility of the documents tendered, but Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani  over ruled, admitted and marked them as exhibits.

As it is, the PDP is expected to close its case seeking to overturn the declaration of Bola Tinubu by INEC as winner of the February 25 election.

The full trial proceedings had commenced last May 30 and lasts for three weeks, according to the schedule of the PEPT made available to petitioners and respondents in the case.

However, while the PDP closes its case on June 22, the Labour Party concludes its presentation a day later, on June 23.

The PEPT had decided to add two extra days to the party, after losing the said days during the matter.

According to the timetable, the party was scheduled to close its case Tuesday, but due to the Democracy Day holiday on Monday, June 12, and last Saturday, they lost two days meant to tender documents and field witnesses.

Counsel to PDP, Chris Uche said they had fielded 25 witnesses and would make it a round number of 30. The 70 remaining witnesses would come in the form of tendered documents.

Earlier, the PDP lamented the difficulties encountered in getting Certified True Copies (CTCs) of documents out of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in aid of their petition challenging the declaration of President Bola Tinubu.

Uche further expressed displeasure that they had applied for a CTC of a subpoena since May 26 and INEC had just produced it, making it difficult to work on.

INEC, however, in its defence accused the party/Atiku of not paying for the certification and are accusing the commission of delaying the documents.

The PDP counsel stated that they have called INEC officials from across Nigeria to assemble all the documents.

The same story was again reflected by the Labour Party, which had told the court that INEC was deliberately stalling its petition at the PEPT.

The LP still has over 40 witnesses yet to be called up, with barely two days for it to close its argument at the PEPT in its petition challenging emergence of Bola Tinubu of the APC as winner of the February 25 election.

During Tuesday’s proceedings, LP’s Lead Counsel, Dr Livy Uzoukwu expressed displeasure over INEC’s delay in providing the full document ‘especially as our case presentation closes this week and the documents will be paid for if provided.

However, responding, the judges stated that LP has yet to formally write the PEPT to say INEC has not released the requested documents.

“They need to provide a formal proof of this to court,” the judges said.

As it is, many witnesses of the Labour Party may not get a chance to stand, just as the PDP had already concluded to presents its remaining witnesses in the forms of documents before close of petitioners’ presentations, on June 23.

According to the schedule of the PEPT already made available to all parties, the first respondent (the INEC) will begin its defence from June 24 through to 29, this year.

The second and third respondents (Tinubu and Shettima) will kick off theirs from June 30 to July 5, while the fourth respondent (APC) will round off from July 6 to 10.

Meanwhile, at Tuesday’s proceedings, the Labour Party called up additional witnesses in its petition also seeking to annul the victory of Tinubu of the APC as winner of the February 25 poll.

LP again called up Ms Clarita Ogar, an AWS Cloud Engineer and Architect, as its witness who was Examined-in-Chief during Monday’s proceedings, for cross examination by respondents’ counsels .

Earlier, LP and its counsels had called up a witness from INEC which sent a representative, Funmilayo Taiwo to the stand.

LP had subpoenaed INEC, which the counsels had been successfully served on the commission after initial failures encountered.

The INECc representative had tendered some documents but not all requested by the LP team, as she promised to tender the remaining next week, as she also claimed the documents have not been paid for yet by the LP.

INEC’s Director of ICT, Lawrence Bayode was also called up as a subpoenaed Witness, as he presented 2 out of 5 CTC documents demanded from his department and the LP lead counsel, Dr Livy Uzoukwu SAN, requested to get the CTCs of the document for review before they can be admitted by the court.

“I have documents listed in para A and B.

“As for the other documents, they aren’t available. C is still a work In progress.

“D and E we don’t have them, they don’t exist,” Bayode told the court during cross examination.

Meanwhile, in the cross examination which followed the calling up of the AWS Cloiud engineer, Ms Ogar, during Tuesday’s proceedings, the engineer maintained that the report she tendered was based on the preliminary investigation of INEC website which she had conducted and is in court as AWS expert not election expert or a politician.

The witness who contested for House of Rep under LP in Cross Rivers state said she is familiar with Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud Trail but did not bring the trail to court because she has no access to INEC infrastructure. She also stated that glitches happens at testing not maintenance stage

Tinubu’s lawyer Wole Olanipekun during cross examination interrogated the witness (courtesy of (@General_Oluchi).

He first pointed out that her employment letter doesn’t have an author name and she replied that the name of the author is Employee Resource Center printed boldly on it. The lawyer asked if that is a person, but the witness replied that it’s a department that handles employment verification. The lawyer pointed out that the letter is not signed but the witness again, clarified that it was signed by the organization that issued it. “This is the verification letter given to all employees within Amazon,” she replied.

The lawyer asked why she didn’t attach her ID but the witness replied that AWS doesn’t issue ID cards. The lawyer asked for her appointment letter, and she clarified that the appointment verification letter states her appointment date. The lawyer dived into asking if she has a Twitter handle and she replied Yes.

The lawyer read out her Twitter handle and she confirmed it. The lawyer suggested that she downloaded the report from AWS site and the witness replied that the reports are public information posted by AWS. The lawyer said the reports are not her product, but the witness said they are hers because she brought it.

The lawyer asked her if she contested for HOR with Labour Party and she replied yes. The lawyer asked how she felt about that, and she said she was indifferent. The lawyer aske if she won the primaries and she said yes. The lawyer said she sued INEC because INEC didn’t put her name on the list of candidates, and she said that’s correct.

The lawyer asked her if she agrees that the network failure was a glitch on the INEC site on the election day, and she said, “I disagree.”

Lawyer: “Are you aware that in 2017 the AWS S3 cloud service experienced an out time on Tuesday 28 February 2017.”

W: “I was aware.”

The lawyer asked if she’s aware that LP won the presidential election in 12 states & the FCT and she replied that she’s here as an expert witness.  “I can’t speak to the matter that is in court,” she replied.

 The lawyer said to the witness that that when information on the result is uploaded, it is only the image that is transferred, but the witness replied, “You could upload anything, I cannot speak to what was transmitted.”

The lawyer asked her who won the election in Cross River state, her state of origin, and she said she doesn’t know who won. The lawyer asked her who the president of the US is, and she replied; Joe Biden. The lawyer asked who he contested against, and she replied that she isn’t here as an election expert.

The Labour Party has so far called up 7 expert witnesses, including; Barr. Lawrence Ukechukwu, Anthony Chinwo (JP Morgan Chase Software Engineer), Lucky Ukpewo (Channels TV Senior Reporter), Lummie Edevbie (Arise TV Director of Operations ), Ijeoma Osamor (AIT Broadcaster), Prof. Eric M Ofoedu (Professor of Mathematics), and Ms Clarita Ogar (a Cloud Engineer from Amazon)

The PDP and LP petitions were then adjourned till Wednesday, June 21 for the continuation of hearing.