INEC: Obi asking for non-existent documents in petition against Tinubu

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says some documents requested by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, to be presented as exhibits at the Presidential Election Petition Court sitting in Abuja are non-existent.

Obi and the Labour Party are challenging the February 25 election of President Bola Tinubu before the court in a petition marked CA/PEPC/03/2023.

Respondents in the petition are INEC, Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Giving evidence before the court on Tuesday, June 20, the Deputy Director, ICT at INEC, Lawrence Bayode, told the court that out of the five documents Obi asked for, two were non-existent, while one was a work in progress.

READ ALSO: Obi, LP to tribunal: INEC refused to provide documents we requested

One of Obi’s witnesses, Loretta Ogah, an ICT cloud engineer, said she contested election into the House of Representatives on the platform of the Labour Party in Cross River State but lost the election.

Ogah was cross-examined by Wole Olanipakun, SAN, counsel for Tinubu and Shettima.

She told the court that she sued INEC after her loss because the electoral umpire did not list her name on its portal as a result of network failure.

Also cross-examined by the counsel for APC, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, Ogah told the court that glitches did not occur on INEC portal on February 25.

She said she did not know INEC’s password protocol as she was not the commission’s employee.

The court presided over by Justice Haruna Tsammani, therefore, adjourned further hearing to Wednesday, June 21.

The Star