Presidential Election Tribunal Live Updates, June 16, 2023 

Presidential Election Tribunal resumes sitting today, June 16, 2023. The tribunal will hear arguments from both sides in the case challenging the results of the 2023 presidential election.

The case is being closely watched by Nigerians, who are eager to know who will be declared the winner of the election.

Time: 9:30am

Mr Peter Obi is in court live

Labour Party legal counsel team have arrived as well

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The Justices are here.

Lead Justice, Hon. Justice Tsammani welcomes everyone and the case is called CA/PEPC/03/2023.

Time: 9:44am

PARTIES

– Peter Obi represents the Petitioners.

– Saturday Monsigna represents 4th Respondent

Counsels:

Petitioners Legal Teamlead: Dr Livy Uzoukwu SAN

– Awa Kalu SAN

– PIN Ikwueto SAN

– Ben Anechebe SAN

– Ikechukwu Ezechukwu SAN

– Valerie Azinge SAN

– Emeka Opoko SAN

– Alex Ejesieme SAN

– Peter Afuba SAN

– Audu Anuga SAN

– Rita Garba Esq

– Olusola Esq

– Emelia Esq

1st Respondents Legal Team (Inec)

Team Lead: AB Mahmoud San

– Essien

– Stephen SAN

– TM Inuwa SAN

– Suleiman Ibrahim SAN

– Nasara Auta Esq

– Patricia Obi Esq

– Wendy Kuku Esq

2nd & 3rd Respondents Legal Team (Tinubu/shettima)

Lead: Chief Akin Olujimi SAN

– Prof. Taiwo Osipitan SAN

– Adebayo SAN

– Dr. Hassan Liman SAN

– Chief Onoja SAN

– Olatunde Busari SAN

– AU Mustapha SAN

– Mutalib Ojo SAN

– Dr Tunji Abayomi Esq

– Ibrahim Audu Esq

– Akintola Makinde Esq

4th Respondent (Apc):

Lead: LO Fagbemi SAN

– Charles Edosowan SAN

– Afolabi Fashanu SAN

– Abiodun Owonikoko SAN

– Dakas Dakas SAN

– Suraj SAN

– Gboyega Oyewole SAN

– Tajudeen Oladoja SAN

– Mumini Hanafi SAN

– Saheed Sanusi SAN

– Omosanya Popoola Esq

– O. Akintola Esq

– Oyedele Esq

Time: 9:44am

The Proceedings now begins!

Dr. Livy for LP informs the court that they will continue from yesterday and make PW4 available for Cross-examination by the respondents.

He defers to Ikwueto SAN to conduct the proceedings for the Petitioners.

Time: 10:8am

The witness, Prof. Eric is reminded that he is still on oath

1st Respondent Cross-examination:

Q. Where were you on election Day?

A. I went to vote

Q. You voted and it went on smoothly?

A. Yes

Q. You were commissioned to produce this report by the LP?

A. I was requested to produce the repo.

Q. You were paid for it?

A. Nobody paid me

Q. You acted as a patriotic Nigerian?

A. I’m a patriotic Nigerian, yes.

Q. As a disinterested party?

A. Yes

Q. Going by the terms of reference mentioned in Para3 of your WSO, primary source of data was the IREV Portal.

A. Yes

Q. In your witness statement, you made reference to Forms EC8As as well as results uploaded on the IREV Portal, I assume you were referring to the same thing?

A. Not exactly

Q. What did you mean?

A. It’s because they are different

Q. What’s the difference?

A. Forms EC8A is different

A. From what’s uploaded

Q. The Form EC8A uploaded on the portal is the only document you could see on the portal?

A. Not really

Court: what is not really?that’s not a definite answer

A. His questions did not require a definite Answer

Question is repeated

A. No

Q. What else can you see

A. There were blurred images and some that were not related to the analysis done. For instance, results of Senate replaced for House of Reps.

Q. When you refer to Blurred images of Forms EC8A, you did not mean the physical copies could be blurred?

A. I didn’t see physical copies

Q. In all your review, you did not see anything on the portal that suggests there is an electronic collation system?

A. The IREV portal is an electronic collation system

Q. Are you suggesting to the court that the portal is capable of collating

AB: are you suggesting that the portal is capable of collating and tabulating the election by result?

W: it is not capable of doing that

AB: in your wsoo you made reference to 18,000 polling unit with blurred result then you used LP agents results (pg 8) In appendix E

W: Yes

Q. And tabulating the results

A. It’s not capable of doing that

Q. In Appendix E, you made reference to Labour Party agent Forms EC8As

A. Yes

Q. Did you attach them to your report?

A. It has been tendered to the court. I did not

Q. You’re not an election expert

A. It depends

Time: 10:18am

Q. I suggest to you that there was no way you undertook the task in Para3(c) of your Witness Statement, not being an expert.

A. If I understand you clearly, the electoral act and guidelines for conduct of election requires online..

Q. Just answer the question. Are you an election expert, can you determine compliance?

A. I can determine compliance

Q. Look at Exhibit PCB1 series, for Rivers State. (He’s shown the report he tendered that was marked as Exhibit) What LGA is that?

(The court officials are trying to get the document in question which have been marked, looks like they didn’t bring it into the courtroom earlier)

Q. Confirm to the court when you concluded your assignment

A. 19th of March

Q. Back to Exhibit PCB2. Can you read out to LGA

A. Degema

Q. In Ward 7, the Polling Unit you see is?

A. 002

Q. Accredited Voters is 40 correct?

A. Yes

Q. Number of voters 40 correct?

A. Yes

Q. No over voting correct?

A. No over voting

AB Mahmoud: thank you very much Professor, thank you my Lords

2nd And 3rd Respondents Cross-Examination (Tinubu/Shettima)

Q. You’ll agree with me that votes are cast at the polling unit?

A. I agree

Q. At end of election, the votes cast will be sorted, counted and recorded in Forms EC8As?

A. Yes

Q. It is the image of Form EC8A that will be transmitted to

Q. IREV but the hard copies will be taken by the presiding officer to the ward collation center?

A. Yes

Q. The statutory channel for computation of results of voting begins from the polling unit to ward, to LGA, to state a d to national collation centers?

A. Correct my Lord.

Time: 10:23sm

Q. It is part of your claim in your report that some forms you downloaded were blurred

A. Yes

Q. Will I be correct to say that whether transmission failed or what you downloaded was blurred, it will not change the result recorded at the Polling Unit.

A. It will not change if…

A. …Properly used

Q. You also will confirm that IREV is not a collation center

A. It’s not a collation center but meant to serve as a checker

Q. Your report covers only two states, Benue and Rivers State?

A. We did analysis of all the states

Time: 10:28am

Q. Your report is for 2 states?

A. Not only 2 states, Benue and Rivers are part of what I tendered.

Q. Did you tender for Oyo State?

A. Yes

Q. Apart from Rivers and Benue, which other state did you tender?

A. In what I tendered the two states stood out, Rivers and benue

Q. Prof, which other state did you tender?

A. You’re asking the question and smiling, I don’t know…

The whole court is laughing…

Court: Chief Olujimi, you better frown while asking 😀😀😀

Court: this is between senior Advocate of the law and senior Advocate of mathematics.

Time: 10:29am

Court: did you tender for any other state apart from benue and Rivers?

A. No

Q. In your report, you made it clear that you worked only on available data.

A. I worked only on available data but it is expected that the data should be completed.

Time: 10:32am

Q. If you had more data, your report will be different

A. Yes

Q. in your witness statement at paragraph 2B, page 2, you listed recent data analysis practical experience

A. Yes

Q. You’ve not claimed in this witness statement to have done any analysis for a court case in election

Q. Matter like this?

A. No

Q. At Paragraph 3, Page 2 of your witness statement, you said you were requested on 20th Feb. 2023 by Labour Party to carry out analysis on the results for election not yet held?

A. Yes

Q. You were also in that engagement required to determine INEC compliance with electoral act and regulations

A. Yes.

Time: 10:40am

Q. At same Paragraph 3 Sub B, part of your mandate was to determine whether the results to be announced by INEC match with result uploaded without any anticipation that LP will lose the election?

A. That’s part of what was requested of me to do

Q. I find it strange that after your engagement showing you specifically what you were told to do, you now insisted on subpoena

A. In that engagement, nobody made mention of coming to court so I didn’t anticipate coming to court.

This cross-examination is ended!

4th Respondent Cross-examination

Q. Prof. The report you’ve tendered was based on blurred result downloaded from INEC IREV portal

A. Not just blurred results

Q. The exercise you conducted on the blurred result, what aspect of mathematics did you apply?

A. There’s no theory in knowing that something is blurred

Q. I’ll be correct to say that your report based on that aspect of complain is not a product of any expertise?

A. Of course

Time: 10:42am

Q. Can you assist the honourable court, what level of numeral literacy do you suggest a person must posses to add results and collate it at different levels?

A. INEC does not require experts to do that

Q. To be able to do arithmetic, are you suggesting that?

A. youre correct, (any level of mathematical knowledge)

Q. Your choice of Rivers and benue, was it as a result of random pick not informed by any theory?

A. Random pick

Time: 10:47am

Q. You’re aware that at the last presidential election PDP, APC and LP all won a number of states in terms of majority of votes

A. My job have nothing to do with who win and who did not win

Q. Did you know?

A. What you heard may not be correct

Q. Confirm you did not hear anything about the evential outcome of the election.

A. I heard something

Q. Who won the election based on what INEC announced?

Q. Who won in benue state based on what INEC declared?

(Witness is dragging in answering the question)

Q. Do you now recall which party won in Rivers and benue?

A. I can’t say for now

Q. Those two states were won by APC is that correct?

A. I told you can’t say for now

Q. In your report, there’s an element of statistics involved

A. I dealt on exact data

Q. What you did was to sample and extrapolate

A. Sampling have to do with forecasting, I used exact data

Q. How many polling units are there in Rivers State?

A. I don’t have everything off-head

Q. How about benue state?

A. Same answer my Lord

Q. The total number of polling units in Rivers and benue does not amount to 18,000 blurred results you want the court to cancel

A. Since I do not know the number of polling unit, how do I know? They will not add up.

Time: 10:55am

Q. Admonition for statistics: Researchers should be aware of statistical error and sampling error arising from random sampling and bias.

A. I’m not a statistian. The data is an exact data, there’s no randomness in it.

Time: 11am

Q. So your choice of two states was not a random choice?

A. The data is an exact data but when it comes to selection of sample space, the selection is done randomly

Court: you said you did random sampling?

A. No, the choice of states is random but the sampling data is exact

Q. If you have opportunity to do research on other states, you’ll get different results?

A. Each state will come up with its own results

Q. In your report, you analyzed Forms EC8As on the IREV, nowhere did you allude to what was on EC8Bs and EC8Cs

A. Once it’s wrong at the polling unit level, it will be wrong up, so the most important form to analyze is Form EC8A

That’s all on the Cross-examination!

Time: 11:4am

There’s no questions in reexamination from the LP team. Ikwueto SAN for LP now asked that the witness be discharged.

The court discharges him from the witness box.

RELATED : Court Rejects Request to Live-Stream Presidential Election Petitions

Time: 11:7am

Ikwueto SAN for LP: my Lords after PW5 we crave your indulgence to allow us call a very short witness within time

Court: your witness is very short?

Everyone laughs 🤣🤣🤣

The witness PW5 Lummie is now called.

1st Respondent Cross-examination (INEC)

They do not have any questions for the witness

On a second thought, the 1st Respondent (INEC) will now ask few questions.

Time: 11:14am

Q. You’re an experienced broadcaster?

A. Correct

Q. You’re also familiar with the use of computers and various platforms for transmitting or broadcasting

A. Yes

Q. You know the difference between transfer of information and transmission

A. Yes. Transfer means moving it from one

A. Known/designated location to another known/designated location

Q. Transmission on the other hand does not necessarily connotes transfer from one location to another

A. Yes

Q. You work with AriseTV

A. Arise News

Q. When you broadcast, you arr actually transmitting

Q. Yes

Time: 11:17am

Q. Any number of persons withing transmission zone can access it if they have appropriate device?

A. Yes

Q. You’ll agree that technically, transfer and transmission are distinct

A. Yes.

That’s all

2nd and 3rd Respondent (Tinubu/Shettima) cross-examination:

Q. Do you confirm you were not at Chatham House during that briefing?

A. Physically, No. It was a live streaming, so I was present online.

Q. The national chairman, INEC, Prof Yakubu Mahmoud is still alive today?

A. Yes, as far as I know

That’s all for the witness…

4th Respondent (APC) Cross-examination:

Q. can you summarize the message of relevance in the drive that was played.

A. In summary, INEC and it’s officials decided to use technology for the elections.

Time: 11:22am

Q. Out of that deployment of technology will include use of bvas exclusively for accreditation of voters?

A. In my understanding

Q. Before 2023 election, you had observed election, you knew how accreditation was done. Bvas not used in 2019

A. Yes, in 2019. Bvas was not used

Q. Bvas was an innovation in 2023 election?

A. I think so

Q. Will I be right to say you’re familiar with INEC regulations and guidelines

A. I’m not totally familiar

Q. From the flash that you played, we heard the chairman of INEC indicating that for the purpose of carry public along, copies of completed Forms EC8As will be snapped and uploaded on the IREV protal is that correct?

A. Yes

Time: 11:28am

Q. That was about 17th January, referring to paragraph 12 of your statement?

A. Yes

Q. Between 17 January and 25 February, your station and other media houses had regular interface with INEC?

A. I believe so, but my duty is not editorial but technical

Q. Content on Arise TV, you also get to view them either live or afterwards in a recorded version?

A. Yes, as much as I can

Q. After 17 January, did you by an chance happen to know that a Federal High Court in Abuja

Objection by SAN Ikwueto for LP: the witness came for a specific purpose to produce video and they as asking him about what High Court did. He came to produce, tender and play in open court the recording of Mahmoud Conference in Chatham House by the Subpoena.

Court: Evidence act allows them not to remain on the basis of coming.

Ikwueto SAN: My Lord, but it must be based on the facts.

Court: you’d have allowed him to land on the question, he had not finish asking the question, he only mentioned federal High Court Judgment.

Time: 11:34am

Q. Are you aware that after Chatham House interview, INEC informed the public that they were no longer going to transmit electronically

A. I’m not aware of such

The lawyer of the 4th respondents want to tender the paper from the bar and the court is shocked and refuses that he is not the maker and the witness says he knows nothing about the documents.

The witness is now discharged without any reexamination.

Ikwueto SAN for LP: He now tells the court that they will now call witness PW6

Court: You mean your short witness, I thought it’s Aki and Pawpaw.

Time: 11:45am

All the Respondents are asking to come back by Monday, skipping Saturday.

Dr. Livy now addresses the Court that the witness required to give evidence, the burial ceremony of their Chairman of the organization (AIT)is starting Monday and will not be disposed to come.

The court now allows them to take the witness today and Dr. Livy says tomorrow can be a free day.

They’ll now the witness, PW6… It’s a lady

It’s the favourite Ijeeeeeeooooma Osamor from AIT

@AIT_Online

We will now move into witness Examination

Q. Your name is Ijeaoma Osamor

A. Yes

Q. Where do you work?

A. With DAAR Communications, owners of AIT, RayPower and Faaji I have my ID card with me.

(Ikwueto now seeks to tender her ID Card, they’ve made a copy of the card, he notes)

Now to Objections. There are no objections.

The Court: The Copy of PW6 Staff ID Card is hereby admitted into evidence and marked as Exhibits PCH accordingly. As the court pleases.

Time: 11:50am

Q. Your organization was served with a subpoena to attend court today?

A. Yes, I have a copy of the subpoena

Q. Following that Subpoena, you came to this court and deposed to a witness Statement?

A. Yes

Q. Would you like the court to adopt it as your evidence

A. Of course

Time: 11:54am

OBJECTIONS

2nd and 3rd Respondents:

They object that the WSO were not front loaded (given before hearing) and they adopt their earlier arguments in that regard and to uphold the Objection & render the witness incompetent to testify.

1st Respondent: They object on similar grounds.

Time: 12:24pm

Court Update continues: Ikwueto SAN for LP now applies to the court for the flash drive to be played…

There’s no objections to the video being played by all Respondents.

Time to watch another video

A video is now being played. It shows Ijeoma Osamor on Democracy today program where she also played a video where Mahmoud is heard to say copies of results will be uploaded to IREV by the BVAS device

He further assures Nigerians that BVAS has come to stay and ‘results will be uploaded Real-time And Nigerians Will View It Being Uploaded Directly From Polling Units.

He also assures that it will be done in real time, that it has been done in other elections and will be done now.

On collection of PVCs, he assures Nigerians that the commission will soon release the guidelines for the further collection of the PVCs.

That brings it to an end of the video of about 3 minutes

1st Respondent Cross-examination

No Questions but thanks the witness for coming

2nd And 3rd Respondents Cross-examination

Q. That video you just played, you said in your witness statement that you anchored the program?

Yes sir.

Q. You had cameramen of AIT who took pictures of that program

A. Yes, every studio, there are cameramen

Q. It’s not part of your duty to handle camera?

A. No it’s not.

Q. Now, you said the program was streamed live on Facebook and YouTube?

A. Yes My Lord

Q. The only other role that you played before we got to this video was you to go to Facebook to download with ur phone

A. Yes

Q. You transfered the video from Facebook to the flash

A. I used my phone to get the video when I was asked to provide the copy of the video by the subpoena

Q. How come about the flash drive

A. Flash drive was from the office. I sent what I downloaded to them

A. I sent the link to the office and further transfer to the drive.

Q. There were 3 levels of operations before the flash drive.

A. Yes

Q. The National Chairman of INEC seen in the video is still alive

A. Before I came into the court, he was alive, I don’t know thereafter 😂😂

4th Respondent Cross-examination

Q. the report which took place in your program was an event outside of the AIT?

A. Yes My Lord

Q. The program Democracy Today is anchored inside the AIT Studio?

A. Yes My Lord

Q. And AIT crew attended that program?

A. Yes My Lord

Time: 12:29pm

Q. It was their recording brought back to the studio you played during your program?

A. Yes My Lord

Q. Please what’s the duration of Democracy Today?

A. It’s 55minutes

Q. Every short program, a copy of the recording must be kept in studio

A. Because we stream live..

A. We have the studio copy and online copy

Q. The one you brought to the court, you got it from cyberspace

A. Yes

Q. Did you have any challenge making a copy from the official copy in the studio

A. We only keep them in the libraries and I got a call by at about 11pm

A. For shortness of time, I accessed the online copy

Q. The versions kept in the library, do you normally submit copies to NBC

A. NBC comes sometimes to get records of broadcast and visitors

Q. I’ll be right to say that since this was an official order of court, you’ll prefer

Q. apart from the events of 22nd November, you also gave full coverage of the events leading to Presidential elections.

A. Yes

Q. Do you access copies from other media houses?

Q. So you’ll be surprised to see that news.

A. Newspaper can get information from interviews, we deal with cameras.

That’s all for the cross-examination

A. Our news is breaking, we don’t accept second hand report.

Ikwueto applies for the discharge of the witness who he says indeed she has shown that she’s a professional broadcaster ☺️☺️☺️

Court: are you marketing her?😂😂😂

Ikwueto: my Lord, trading, that’s what my people do very well 😂😂😂

Time: 12:36pm

Ikwueto SAN appreciates the court for the indulgence abd hands over to Livy SAN who thanks the court for the opportunity to call their last witness for the day.

He says that with that witness, they do not have any problem by the application of the respondents 4 a free day tomorrow

AB Mahmoud SAN: the Court asked for our views, and we gave our views, we didn’t apply for anything.

Livy SAN: Fine, then we’re ready to come back tomorrow my Lord.

The Court now adjourns till Monday June 19, 2023 at 2pm for the continuation of hearing.

@MissPearls