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Presidential Poll: Over 18,088 Results INEC Uploaded Were blurred — Obi’s Witness

Published

11 months ago

June 16, 2023

Editor

A Professor of Mathematics, Eric Ofoedu, yesterday testified before the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, in the case candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Mr. Peter Obi, filed to nullify President Bola Tinubu’s election victory.

Prof. Ofoedu, in his testimony, told the court that over 18,088 result sheets the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, uploaded to its election result viewing portal, IReV, in relation to the presidentialcontest that held on February 25, were blurred.

The don, who told the court that he was with the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, was the fourth witness to testify in the joint petition Obi and his party filed to challenge the outcome of the presidential election.

He told the court that he found that the electoral body uploaded unreadable data to its portal while he was analysing results of the election, adding that he paid very close attention to the outcome of the election in Rivers and Benue states.

Move by the witness to tender some documents in evidence was opposed by all the Respondents in the matter.

The Respondents, who equally challenged the admissibility of Prof. Ofoedu’s statement on oath as an exhibit before the court, said they would adduce reasons for their objections in their final written address.

Specifically, INEC’s lawyer, Mr. Abubakar Mahmood, SAN, told the court that he was served with a statement of the witness shortly before the proceeding commenced. He argued that with the development, he would not be able to effectively cross-examine the witness.

His request for the petitioners to step down the evidence of the Respondent was supported by counsel for President Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, as well as that of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN.

However, though Justice Haruna Tsammani-led’s five-member panel did not allow the witness to give his testimony and tender the exhibits, it said it would rule on the respondents’ objections before it would deliver judgement in the case.

Among documents the witness tendered in evidence before the court, were report of data analysis of the election, INEC results viewing scores investigation, as well as separate data analysis of results of the election in Rivers and Benue states.

Whereas the court admitted the reports and marked them as exhibits PCG1 – PVG3, it equally admitted in evidence, blurred polling units results from IReV in 18,088 polling units across the federation. Based on agreement by all the parties, the court okayed the respondents to cross-examine the witness today.

Meanwhile, immediately Prof. Ofoedu was discharged from the witness box, the petitioners called their fifth witness, PW-5, Lumnie Edevbie, who is a staff of Arise News Television who was subpoenaed to produce a video exhibit.

The exhibit, which was in a flash drive, contained a video recording of a speech the INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, delivered at Chatham’s House, in London on January 17.

In the video clip played in the open court, INEC chairman, Prof. Yakubu, made a case for the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, as well as the IRev for the conduct of the general elections, describing them as the commission’s biggest archive and repository of results of the elections. Although the respondents objected to the admissibility of the evidence, the court admitted it and marked it as one of the exhibits in the petition.

The court said it would also rule on the objections before its final judgement, even as it adjourned further hearing on the petition till today. Obi, who is claiming he won the presidential election is, among other things, praying the court to nullify Tinubu’s victory and withdraw the Certificate of Return issued him by INEC.

Headline

Iran Gets Interim President After Raisi’s Death

Published

8 hours ago

May 20, 2024

Editor

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei assigned vice president Mohammad Mokhber to assume interim duties after the death of president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash a day earlier.

“In accordance with Article 131 of the constitution, Mokhber is in charge of leading the executive branch,” said Khamenei in a statement, adding that Mokhber will be required to work with the heads of legislative and judicial branches to prepare for presidential elections “within a maximum period of 50 days”.

Recall that President Raisi was confirmed dead on Monday after his helicopter crashed in a mountainous region of the country.

Raisi was travelling with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian who also died in the accident.

Rescue teams had been scouring the area since Sunday afternoon after a helicopter carrying Raisi, the foreign minister and other officials had gone missing.

Early Monday, relief workers located the missing helicopter, with state TV saying the president had died.

“The servant of Iranian nation, Ayatollah Ebrahim Raisi has achieved the highest level of martyrdom whilst serving the people,” state television said Monday, with Mehr news agency also saying he was dead.

State television broadcast photos of Raisi, with the voice of a man reciting the Koran playing in the background.

Iran’s vice president for executive affairs Mohsen Mansouri posted on X a Koranic verse used to express condolences.

Meanwhile, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has announced a five days of mourning for President Raisi.

“I announce five days of public mourning and offer my condolences to the dear people of Iran,” said Khamenei in an official statement a day after the death of Raisi and other officials in the crash in East Azerbaijan province.

Headline

UK Threatens To Deport Physically-challenged Nigerian After 38 Years

Published

8 hours ago

May 20, 2024

Editor

The United Kingdom has threatened to deport a physically-challenged Nigerian man, Anthony Olubunmi George, over an alleged forged entry stamp in his passport.

George who has lived in the UK for 38 years, after he left Nigeria at the age of 24 in 1986, according to the Guardian UK.

The 61-year-old Nigerian has no criminal convictions and made several applications for leave to remain in the UK, which the Home Office has rejected, most recently on 7 May.

George’s case became the second African facing a huge disappointment with the UK Home Office after spending several years in Britain.

Vanguard reported last week that a 74-year-old Ghanaian Nelson Shardey, who has resided in the UK since 1977, was refused indefinite leave to remain despite being in the country for most of his adult life.

As the case of the Nigerian, he has never left the UK and has no criminal convictions, with the reports of having two strokes, which left him with problems with speech and mobility in 2019.

When George arrived, Margaret Thatcher was prime minister and Rishi Sunak is the ninth to hold office since George has lived in the UK.

He has endured many periods of homelessness and disclosed he has lost count of the number of friends who have given him shelter over the years, adding that he no longer has any close family in Nigeria.

The Guardian UK said in 2005, his previous solicitors submitted a forged entry stamp in his passport and have subsequently been reported to the police and the legal regulatory bodies.

George told the Guardian he knew nothing about the passport stamp until many years later. His current lawyer, Naga Kandiah of MTC Solicitors, cited his poor previous legal representation as the reason for George’s problems.

In his most recent refusal, Home Office officials said: “Unfortunately this is not something that is considered an exceptional circumstance.”

Kandiah has lodged an appeal against the latest refusal.

A previous Home Office rejection of his case states: “It’s open to your family and friends to visit you in Nigeria.”

George said, “I don’t know how many different sofas I’ve slept on – too many to count. I don’t have my life, living the way I’m living now. My health problems since I had my stroke are my biggest worry. All I’m asking for is some kindness from the Home Office.”

Headline

JUST IN: ICC Prosecutor Seeks Arrest Warrants For Netanyahu, Hamas Leaders

Published

9 hours ago

May 20, 2024

Editor

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has applied for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas’s leader in Gaza for war crimes.

According to BBC, Karim Khan said there were reasonable grounds to believe that both men bore criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity from at least 7 October 2023.

The ICC, based in The Hague, has been investigating Israel’s actions in the occupied territories for the past three years – and more recently the actions of Hamas as well.

Mr Netanyahu recently called the prospect of senior Israel figures joining the ICC’s wanted list “an outrage of historic proportions”.

Last week, 13 Western countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Italy, Japan and others cautioned Israel over its resolve to launch a full-scale operation in Rafah.